NEXT SPACEFLIGHT

Status

Success

Ranger 6

Launch Time
Thu Jan 30, 1964 15:49 UTC

Rocket

Atlas-LV3 Agena-B
Image Credit: USAF or NASA
General Dynamics
Status: Retired
Payload to LEO: 1,725 kg
Stages: 2
Strap-ons: 0

Mission Details

Ranger 6

Ranger 6 was a lunar probe in the Ranger program, a robotic spacecraft series launched by NASA in the early and mid-1960s to obtain the first close-up images of the Moon's surface. It was designed to achieve a lunar-impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras - two wide-angle (channel F, cameras A and B) and four narrow-angle (channel P) - to accomplish these objectives. The cameras were arranged in two separate chains, or channels, each self-contained with separate power supplies, timers, and transmitters so as to afford the greatest reliability and probability of obtaining high-quality television pictures. No other experiments were carried on the spacecraft. Due to a failure of the camera system, no images were returned.

Payloads: 1
Total Mass: 381.0 kg
Trans Lunar Injection

Location

LC-12, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Stats

1964

7th orbital launch attempt

Atlas-Agena

33rd mission
1st mission of 1964
21st successful mission
7th consecutive successful mission