The Explorers' Club, № MCLXXXI

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of Surveyor 2
20-23 September 1966: The Surveyor 2 probe lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket; Surveyor 2 was bound for the Sinus Medii, the closest point of the Moon to the Earth; a thruster failed during a mid-course correction burn & the uneven thrust sent the probe tumbling out of control; contact was lost & Surveyor 2 crashed near the Copernicus Crater.

Commentary: Back in the 2010s, "The Explorers' Club" was consumed with chronicling the centenary of the First World War (1914-1918). The decision to fête the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 2019 was a result of cultural Zeitgeist, not conscious planning. We only decided to similarly cover the other Apollo Moon landings &, retroactively, all Apollo flights, when the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 12 rolled around in November. We completely missed the robotic preparations for the manned Moon landings, the Ranger, Surveyor, & Lunar Orbiter programs (1961-1967). That's what we're doing now, building toward the sixieth anniversaries of the Apollo landings (2029-2032), by which it is hoped that Artemis astronauts will have set foot on the Moon, this time coming to stay. Apollo didn't have in a vacuum. Many of our robotic servants paved the way to the "one giant leap for Mankind."

Ad astra per aspera.