Ranger 6

Ranger 6
Launch of Ranger 6
NSSDC ID	1964-007A
Mission goal	Photographing the moon
Client	NASA
Launcher	Atlas - Agena-B
construction
Takeoff mass	381 kg
Course of the mission
Start date	January 30, 1964
launch pad	CCAFC LC-12
End date	2nd February 1964
01/30/1964 begin 02/02/1964 Impact on the moon

Structure of Ranger 6

Ranger 6 was a space probe from the US space agency NASA . It was the sixth probe under the Ranger program to explore the moon . It was the first probe in the so-called Block III design . Since the previous probes had fulfilled a maximum of their tasks, the Block II design was revised. The most important changes were an improved construction of the solar cells , the installation of a buffer battery with a running time of nine hours and the abandonment of the landing capsule with seismological experiments. Ranger 6 weighed 381 kilograms. Like the previous missions, it was supposed to take pictures of the moon's surface before impact and transmit them to Earth.

mission

Ranger 6 was launched on January 30, 1964 aboard an Atlas - Agena-B missile from the LC-12 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station . After reaching the park orbit, the Agena high school ignited and Ranger 6 set course for the moon. On February 2, 1964, 65.5 hours after take-off, the probe hit the moon without having transmitted any images. Presumably a short circuit in the TV system destroyed the cameras.

Web links

Commons : Ranger Block 3  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• NASA: Ranger 6
• Bernd Leitenberger: The Ranger moon probes
• Lunar Impact - A History of Project Ranger , online version of a NASA book