The fabulous achievement of Sur veyor 1, which sent back more than 11,000 pictures from the surface of the moon, was a tough act to follow. In a disappointing performance last week, Surveyor 2 did not even come close.
Uncontrollable and lifeless, it plowed into the moon's Seething Bay at 6,000 m.p.h. and was completely demolished in the crash.
It was a sad ending for a flight that had made an impressive start. Launched by an Atlas Centaur rocket less than a second before its time "window" closed, Surveyor headed toward the moon on a near-perfect trajectory that would have set...
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