Ranger 9
| Ranger 9 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSSDC ID | 1965-023A | |||||||||
| Mission goal | Photographing the moon | |||||||||
| Client | NASA | |||||||||
| Launcher | Atlas - Agena-B | |||||||||
| construction | ||||||||||
| Takeoff mass | 367 kg | |||||||||
| Course of the mission | ||||||||||
| Start date | March 21, 1965 | |||||||||
| launch pad | CCAFC LC-12 | |||||||||
| End date | March 24, 1965 | |||||||||
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Ranger 9 was a space probe from the US space agency NASA . It was the ninth and final probe in the Ranger program to explore the moon . Like Ranger 6 to Ranger 8, it was built in the so-called Block III design and weighed 367 kilograms. Like the previous missions, it was supposed to take pictures of the lunar surface in the last few minutes before impact and transmit them to earth.
mission
Ranger 9 launched on March 21, 1965 aboard an Atlas - Agena-B missile from the LC-12 launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station . After reaching the park orbit at an altitude of 185 kilometers, the Agena upper stage was ignited for ninety seconds, bringing Ranger 9 onto a trajectory to the moon. Seventy minutes after takeoff, she unfolded her solar panels . On March 23, 1965, the correction engines were ignited for 31 seconds. The probe reached the moon on March 24, 1965. The first image was taken from an altitude of 2,363 kilometers at 1:49 p.m. UT. The last image had a resolution of 0.3 meters and was thus the highest resolution image of the Ranger missions. After a mission lasting 64 hours, the probe hit the Alphonsus crater at around 2.67 km / s .
The mission was considered a success.
Video
The last images of the probe were broadcast live on American television:
Web links
- NASA: Ranger 9
- Bernd Leitenberger: The Ranger moon probes
- Lunar Impact - A History of Project Ranger , online version of a NASA book