Ranger 8
| Ranger 8 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSSDC ID | 1965-010A | |||||||||
| Mission goal | Photographing the moon | |||||||||
| Client | NASA | |||||||||
| Launcher | Atlas - Agena-B | |||||||||
| construction | ||||||||||
| Takeoff mass | 367 kg | |||||||||
| Course of the mission | ||||||||||
| Start date | February 17, 1965 | |||||||||
| launch pad | CCAFC LC-12 | |||||||||
| End date | February 20, 1965 | |||||||||
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Ranger 8 was a space probe from the US space agency NASA . It was the eighth probe in the Ranger's program to explore the moon. Like Ranger 6 and Ranger 7, it was built in the Block III design and weighed 367 kilograms. Like the previous missions, it was supposed to take pictures of the lunar surface in the last minutes before impact and transmit them to earth.
mission
Ranger 8 took off from the LC-12 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on February 17, 1965 aboard an Atlas - Agena-B rocket . After reaching the park orbit at an altitude of 185 kilometers, the Agena upper level was ignited for ninety seconds after 14 minutes and Ranger 8 was brought onto a track to the moon. The probe separated from high school a few minutes later and unfolded its solar panels . The probe reached the moon on February 20, 1965. At 09:34 UTC, the first image was taken and transmitted from an altitude of 2510 kilometers above the surface. The last picture had a resolution of 1.5 meters. The probe hit the Mare Tranquillitatis at about 2.68 km / s after a 64-hour flight . In total, this probe sent 7137 images.
The mission was a success.
Trivia
The point of impact can be seen in images of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter , which was launched in 2009 .
Web links
- NASA: Ranger 8
- Bernd Leitenberger: The Ranger moon probes
- Lunar Impact - A History of Project Ranger , online version of a NASA book