Country of Origin: United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 4 ft. 10 in. tall x 3 ft. 1 in. wide (147.32 x 93.98cm)
Materials:
Spherical chamber, probably sheet steel; interior dummy propellant and nozzle, plastic; nozzle skirt, plastic; pyrogen, or igniter top, steel
This is a cutaway mockup of the solid fuel Retro Motor for the Surveyor spacecraft, the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on the surface of the Moon. The Retro was a high performance motor to decelerate the Surveyor spacecraft as it approached the lunar surface.
The Retro was developed by the Elkton, Maryland, Division of the Thiokol Chemical Corporation. The average thrust was about 8,400 pounds. Surveyor 1 was launched in 1966 and Surveyor 7, the last in the series, was launched 1968. Images and data gathered by the Surveyors aided the coming manned Apollo lunar exploration missions. This model was donated to the Smithsonian in 1976 by Thiokol.
Thiokol Chemical Corporation, Elkton, Md. Division
