Lunar Orbiter Program

2001

The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five un-crewed lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States from 1966 through 1967. Intended to help select Apollo landing sites by mapping the Moon's surface, they provided the first photographs from lunar orbit and photographed both the Moon and Earth. Wikipedia 

Started  1963

Completed  January 31, 1968

First flight  August 10, 1966

Last flight  August 1, 1967

Start date  1963

Missions  Lunar Orbiter 1 Mission, Lunar Orbiter 5 Mission, Lunar Orbiter 3 Mission

www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunarorbiter/mission/?1 

Lunar Orbiter 1

Lunar Orbiter I  was a photographic survey for Apollo landing sites within ±5 degrees latitude (i.e., along the equator) and ±45 degrees longitude (i.e., on the lunar near side). The spacecraft was launched August 10, 1966.

Between August 18 and 29 it produced 413 high- and moderate-resolution photographs, covering 262,000 square kilometers of the nearside of the Moon and over 3 million square kilometers of the far side of the Moon.

www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunarorbiter/