Lunar Orbiter 1 was the first in a program of unmanned spacecraft whose primary mission was to map and recon**iter the lunar terrain in search of potential landing spots for the upcoming manned Apollo missions.
The 850-pound probe was launched on August 10, and — despite some difficulties with navigation and overheating — reached lunar orbit 92 hours later
On August 18, it began mapping the lunar surface with its twin onboard lenses. A wide-angle 80mm lens and narrow-angle 610mm lens simultaneously exposed images on a single roll of 70mm film, capturing medium- and high-resolution images as the craft zipped over the surface. Read more...