Ranger 7

Launch data: Designation 00842 / 64041A Launch date 28 Jul 1964 - 16:05 UT (16:50:07 UT?) Launch site CC, LC12 Launch vehicle Atlas-LV3 Agena-B (#250D/AA9) Mission Lunar impact Payload code  Ranger-B (P-54) Maximum distance from Earth 400.000 km All-burnt velocity 10,98 km/sec Lunar impact 31 Jul 1964 - 13:25:49 UT

Specifications:

Mission details:

• Successfully placed on a lunar impact trajectory at 39 324 km/h to impact after a flight time of 68 hr 36 min, with the final 13m 40 sec taken up imaging through the 6 TV cameras with 4 316 photos, 4 308 of these being usable. Impact speed was 9 330 km/h and in the final photo craters of 0.4 m diameter were shown at the impact point of 10°38' S, 20°36' W in the sea of Clouds. The last picture showed an area 32 x 46 m, taken just 0.19 sec before impact.
• The crater created by the impact was photographed by Apollo-16 in 1972 and had a diameter of 14 meters.
• Ranger 7 reached the Moon on 31 July. The F-channel began its one minute warm up 18 minutes before impact. The first image was taken at 13:08:45 GMT at an altitude of 2110 km. Transmission of 4,308 photographs of excellent quality occurred over the final 17 minutes of flight. The final image taken before impact had a resolution of 0.5 meters. The spacecraft encountered the lunar surface in direct motion along a hyperbolic trajectory, with an incoming asymptotic direction at an angle of -5.57 degrees from the lunar equator. The orbit plane was inclined 26.84 degrees to the lunar equator. After 68.6 hours of flight, Ranger 7 impacted in an area between Mare Nubium and Oceanus Procellarum (subsequently named Mare Cognitum) at approximately 10.35 S latitude, 339.42 E longitude. Impact occurred at 13:25:48.82 GMT at a velocity of 2.62 km/s.

First U.S. Image of the Moon Ranger 7 took this image, the first picture of the Moon by a U.S. spacecraft about 17 minutes before impacting the lunar surface. The large crater at center right is the 108 km diameter Alphonsus. Above it is Ptolemaeus and below it Arzachel. Mare Nubium is at center and left. The Ranger 7 impact site is off the frame, to the left of the upper left corner.

Credit: NASA/JPL