Ranger program: Difference between revisions

[[Image:Ranger7 PIA02975.jpg|thumb|200px|right|First image of the Moon returned by a Ranger mission (Ranger 7 in 1964)]]The '''Ranger program''' was a series of [[unmanned space mission]]s by the [[United States]] in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the [[Moon]]. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar surface, transmitting those images to Earth until the spacecraft were destroyed upon impact. A series of mishaps, however, led to the failure of the first six flights. At one point, the program was called "shoot and hope".<ref>[http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/CortrightEM/EMC_8-20-98.pdf Cortright Oral History (p25)]</ref> Congress launched an investigation into “problems of management” at [[NASA]] Headquarters and [[JPL|Jet Propulsion Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Dick|first=Steven J.|title=NASA's First 50 Years: Historical Perspectives|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20100025873|work=NASA History|publisher=NASA Technical Reports Server|accessdate=21 September 2011|page=12}}</ref> After two reorganizations of the agencies,{{citation needed|date=October 2012}} [[Ranger 7]] successfully returned images in July 1964, followed by two more successful missions.

 

 

==Ranger spacecraft==