Launch Success

Liftoff Time (GMT)

15:49:00

Thursday January 30, 1964

Watch Replay

24/7 Coverage

Mission Details

Ranger 6

Wiki

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.

Trans Lunar Injection

1 Payload

381 kilograms

Rocket

Retired
Atlas-LV3 Agena-B

Active 1961 to 1965


Payload to Orbit

LEO: 1,725 kg

Stages

2

Launch Site

LC-12

Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Fastest Turnaround

32 days 4 hours

Stats

Atlas-Agena


33rd

Mission

1st

Mission of 1964

1964


7th

Orbital launch attempt