Surveyor evaluation. An engineering mock-up of the Surveyor 7 spacecraft undergoing tests in early 1968. Surveyor 7 was the last of the lunar exploration Surveyor craft to be built. Surveyor 7 carried a TV camera, an alpha scattering device and a surface sampling boom, providing data used to determine landing sites for the Apollo missions. Unlike its predecessors, Surveyor 7 was sent to an upland terrain, near the vast Tycho crater. Data gathered from the mission determined that the site was unsuitable for manned landings. Surveyor 7 was launched on 7 January 1968, returning over 21,000 TV images.