Dead on Arrival

As Surveyor 4 sped toward the moon's Central Bay at 5,938 m.p.h. last week, ground controllers at Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory had high hopes that the unmanned spacecraft would do everything it was told. Two earlier Surveyors had soft-landed on the moon with astonishing ease, sent back 17,465 detailed pictures showing even lunar pebbles. With a hinged aluminum arm, Surveyor 3 had also scooped up lunar soil, helped determine that the moon's surface is strong enough to bear a weight of 6 lbs. per sq. in., more than enough to support the Apollo astronaut.

Armed with a pair of 2-in. metal bars, one of them magnetized, Surveyor 4 was designed to test the extent to which material in the moon's crust may be attracted by a magnet. In turn, this information might have yielded new clues as to whether the moon's surface features were formed by volcanic activity or by the impact of meteors.

Something went wrong. What J.P.L.'s Surveyor Project Manager Howard J. Haglund thought was "a perfectly normal flight" abruptly ended less than two seconds before Surveyor 4's retrorocket was scheduled to stop firing 40,000 ft. above the moon as all radio contact ended. The best guess at J.P.L. is that the retrorocket exploded, blasting the craft to bits. Whether that actually happened, or whether Surveyor 4 disintegrated on impact, is a mystery that may never be solved--unless astronauts some day hike to the target site and examine the wreckage.

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