Ranger 5

Launch data:: Designation 00439 / 1962 B Eta 1 / 62055A Launch date 18 Oct 1962 - 16:59 UT Launch site CC, LC12 Launch vehicle Atlas-LV3 Agena-B (#215D/AA7) Mission Lunar lander Payload code  NASA P-36 Heliocentric orbit (Sun orbit): Perihelion x Aphelion 0.951 x 1.064 A.U. Eccentricity 0.056 Incl. to ecliptic 0.41° Period (around the Sun) 369 days

Specifications: Prime contractor  JPL Operator  NASA Mass at launch  342 kg Dry Mass   kg Dimension 1,52 dia - 2,51 long Basic shape Hexagonal cylinder Solar array   Stabilization   Lifetime  Indefinite

Engineers prepare a Ranger Block 2 spacecraft. This design was used for Rangers 3, 4 and 5.

Mission details:

• Third and final Block-II mission with a soft-landing attempt. On deployment of solar panels at 1 hour 13 min, there was an electrical short-circuit and the panels would not work. The batteries had run down by 8 hr 44 min into the flight and the craft sailed on to miss the moon by 724 km, then passed into heliocentric (sun-centered) orbit. Mission controllers tracked it to a distance of 1.3 million kilometers (808,000 miles). Scientists did get back about four hours of data from a gamma ray experiment.
• Ranger 5 lifted off from launch Complex 12 into a leaden sky. The roar of the Atlas engines subsided as the vehicle soared out of sight. Inside the JPL command post, mission controllers learned that the rate beacon in the Atlas guidance system had malfunctioned. The rocket, nevertheless, continued on course, responding to backup commands radioed to it from the Cape computer. The same Atlas failure had caused the loss of Mariner 1, but the proper "hyphen" in the guidance equations saved the day for Ranger.
• A few hours later a malfunction caused the spacecraft to switch to battery power. The batteries were drained within eight hours, leaving the spacecraft blind and deaf. It tumbled past the Moon and ended up in a heliocentric orbit.