Surveyor 7 was the fifth and final spacecraft of the Surveyor series to achieve a lunar soft landing. The primary objectives of the Surveyor program, a series of seven robotic lunar softlanding flights, were to support the coming crewed Apollo landings by:

(1) developing and validating the technology for landing softly on the Moon;

(2) providing data on the compatibility of the Apollo design with conditions encountered on the lunar surface; and

(3) adding to the scientific knowledge of the Moon.

The specific objectives for this mission were to:

(1) perform a lunar soft landing (in a highland area well removed from the maria to provide a type of terrain photography and lunar sample significantly different from those of other Surveyor missions);

(2) obtain postlanding TV pictures;

(3) determine the relative abundances of chemical elements;

(4) manipulate the lunar material; (5) obtain touchdown dynamics data; and,

(6) obtain thermal and radar reflectivity data.

Surveyor 7 was the only Surveyor craft to land in the lunar highland region.