Lunar Orbiter 5
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| Organization: | NASA |
| Major Contractors: | Langley Research Center |
| Mission Type: | Lunar Science |
| Satellite of: | Moon |
| Launch: | August 1, 1967 at 22:32:00 UTC |
| Launch Vehicle: | Atlas-Agena D |
| Decay: | Impacted lunar surface on January 31, 1968, at 2.79 degrees S, - 83 degrees W. |
| Mission Duration: | 183 days |
| Mass: | 385.6 kg |
| NSSDC ID: | 1967-075A |
| Webpage: | NASA NSSDC Master Catalog |
| Orbital elements | |
|---|---|
| Semimajor Axis: | 4,846.8 km |
| Eccentricity: | .26 |
| Inclination: | 85° |
| Orbital Period: | 510.08 minutes |
| Aposelene: | 6,023 km |
| Periselene: | 194.5 km |
| Orbits: | 1,380 |
| Instruments | |
| Lunar Photographic Studies : | Evaluation of Apollo and Surveyor landing sites |
| Meteoroid Detectors : |
Detection of micrometeoroids in the lunar environment |
| Cesium Iodide Dosimeters : | Radiation environment enroute to and near the moon |
| Selenodesy : | Gravitational field and physical properties of the moon |
Lunar Orbiter 5, the last of the Lunar Orbiter series, was designed to take additional Apollo and Surveyor landing site photography and to take broad survey images of unphotographed parts of the Moon's far side. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data and was used to evaluate the Manned Space Flight Network tracking stations and Apollo Orbit Determination Program. The spacecraft was placed in a cislunar trajectory and on 5 August 1967 was injected into an elliptical near polar lunar orbit 194.5 km x 6023 km with an inclination of 85 degrees and a period of 8 hours 30 minutes. On 7 August the perilune was lowered to 100 km and on 9 August the orbit was lowered to a 99 km x 1499 km, 3 hour 11 minute period. The photographic portion of the mission ended on 18 August. The spacecraft acquired photographic data from August 6 to 18, 1967, and readout occurred until August 27, 1967. A total of 633 high resolution and 211 medium resolution frames at resolution down to 2 meters were acquired, bringing the cumulative photographic coverage by the 5 Lunar Orbiters to 99% of the Moon's surface. Accurate data were acquired from all other experiments throughout the mission. The spacecraft was tracked until it impacted the lunar surface on command at 2.79 degrees S latitude, 83 degrees W longitude (selenographic coordinates) on January 31, 1968.
[edit] External links
| Lunar Orbiter program |  |
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| Previous mission: | Lunar Orbiter 4 | Next mission: | Last in series | |
| Lunar Orbiter 1 | Lunar Orbiter 2 | Lunar Orbiter 3 | Lunar Orbiter 4 | Lunar Orbiter 5 | ||||
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