Ranger lunar probe program

E930462

The Ranger lunar probe program was a series of early U.S. robotic missions in the 1960s designed to obtain close-up images of the Moon’s surface by deliberately impacting the lunar terrain.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Ranger lunar probe program canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (50)

Predicate Object
instanceOf NASA space program
lunar exploration program
robotic spacecraft program
aimedAt Moon
contributedTo Apollo program landing site selection
countryOfOrigin United States
dataTypeCollected high-resolution lunar images
telemetry
endTime 1965
era early 1960s Space Race
failureRateEarlyMissions high
firstSuccessfulLunarImpactMission Ranger 7
followedBy Lunar Orbiter program
Surveyor program
includes Ranger 1
Ranger 2
Ranger 3
Ranger 4
Ranger 5
Ranger 6
Ranger 7
Ranger 8
Ranger 9
laterMissionsOutcome successful lunar imaging and impact
launchVehicleUsed Atlas LV-3 Agena-B
managedBy Jet Propulsion Laboratory
missionProfile deliberate impact on lunar surface
missionType impact probe
notableMission Ranger 7
Ranger 8
Ranger 9
numberOfMissions 9
operator NASA
partOf United States lunar exploration efforts
precededBy early U.S. lunar flyby attempts
primaryObjective obtain close-up images of the Moon’s surface
Ranger7_impactDate 1964-07-31
Ranger7_impactSite Mare Cognitum
Ranger8_impactDate 1965-02-20
Ranger8_impactSite Mare Tranquillitatis
Ranger9_impactDate 1965-03-24
Ranger9_impactSite Alphonsus crater region
spaceAgency NASA
spacecraftType Ranger Block I
linked to: Ranger program

Ranger Block II
Ranger Block III
linked to: Ranger Block II
startTime 1961
status completed
targetBody Moon
technologyDemonstrated high-speed lunar imaging prior to impact

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Atlas-Agena notableMission Ranger lunar probe program