The spacecraft consisted of a hexagonal aluminium frame base 1.5 m across on which was mounted the propulsion and power units, topped by a truncated conical tower which held the TV cameras.

Two solar panel wings, each 739 mm wide by 1537 mm long, extended from opposite edges of the base with a full span of 4.6 m, and a pointable high-gain dish antenna was hinge mounted at one of the corners of the base away from the solar panels.

Power was supplied by 9792 Si solar cells contained in the two solar panels, giving a total array area of 2.3 square meters and producing 200 W. Two 1,200 watt-hour batteries rated at 26.5 V with a capacity for 9 hours of operation provided power to each of the separate communication/TV camera chains.

Sufficient video bandwidth was provided to allow for rapid framing sequences of both narrow and wide-angle television pictures.

Seventy minutes after launch, the command was given to deploy solar panels, activate attitude control, and switch from the omniantenna to the high-gain antenna.

At 13:31 UTC, a terminal maneuver was executed to orient the spacecraft so the cameras were more in line with the flight direction to improve the resolution of the pictures.

After 64.5 hours of flight, impact occurred at 14:08:19.994 UTC at approximately 12.83 S latitude, 357.63 E longitude in the Alphonsus crater.