LUNAR ORBITER III.
AN OBLIQUE VIEW OF KEPLER CRATER.
Black and white photograph, 20 by 22½ inches. Image III-162-M, medium resolution. February 25, 1967.
A beautiful oblique view of Kepler crater. Launched on February 5, 1967, Lunar Orbiter III (LO3) produced 211 photographs taken during 54 orbits, only 75% were successfully transmitted back to earth. Essentially a site-confirmation mission, LO3 had the task of re-photographing 12 potential landing sites identified by Lunar Orbiters I and II. NASA was able to utilize the photograph data to narrow the landing site selection down to 8 possibilities. Aside from potential landing sites, LO3 also took imagery of secondary sites of scientific interest on the far side of the moon and at higher latitudes on the lunar nearside.