Ranger 4
| Ranger 4 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ranger 4 |
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| NSSDC ID | 1962-012A | ||||||
| Mission goal | Photographing the moon | ||||||
| Client | NASA | ||||||
| Launcher | Atlas Agena-B | ||||||
| construction | |||||||
| Takeoff mass | 331 kg | ||||||
| Course of the mission | |||||||
| Start date | April 23, 1962 | ||||||
| launch pad | CCAFC LC-12 | ||||||
| End date | April 26, 1962 | ||||||
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Ranger 4 was a space probe from the US space agency NASA . It was the fourth probe as part of the Ranger program for exploring the moon and, like its predecessor, was built in the so-called Block II design with a mass of 331 kilograms. The aim of the mission was to take pictures of the surface of the moon and transmit them to the earth. This should be done in the last ten minutes before serving. In addition, a capsule was to be ejected shortly before the impact, which was to carry out seismic investigations of the moon.
The mission
Ranger 4 took off on April 23, 1962 from the LC-12 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard an Atlas - Agena-B missile.
After the successful launch, the probe set course for the moon. However, the probe did not respond to radio signals because a timer to control the on-board computer had failed, so that certain maneuvers could not be started or carried out. The probe spun and did not stabilize. After a while, their power supply collapsed because the batteries were dead and the solar panels had not unfolded. On April 26, 1962, Ranger 4 crashed on the moon.
swell
- NASA: Ranger 4 (English)
- Bernd Leitenberger: The Ranger moon probes
- Lunar Impact - A History of Project Ranger , online version of a NASA book