Ranger 9: Lunar Impact – For All Moonkind Moon Registry

Mission Details

Mission Name: Ranger 9

Mission Type: Lunar Impact

Operator: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

Launching State: United States

Location: Alphonsus Crater

Latitude: 112.828

Longitude: -2.387

Launch Date: 21 March 1965, 21:37 UT

Landing Date: 24 March 1965, 14:08:19 UT

Objects on or Related to Site:
Ranger 9

Image Source: NASA

Description

The Ranger project of the 1960s was a US effort to launch probes directly toward the Moon. The spacecraft were designed to relay pictures and other data as they approached the Moon and finally crash-landed into its surface. A variety of difficulties plagued the first several attempted missions in this series, but the later Rangers were finally a complete success.

Ranger 9 was the last of the Ranger series of spacecraft launched in the 1960s to explore the moon and was designed to image and impact the moon’s crater Alphonsus, which was thought to be the site of recent lunar volcanic activity.

Heritage Consideration

Unlike its predecessors, Ranger 9 pointed its cameras directly in its direction of travel, yielding stunning photographs of the lunar surface. Data from the mission dramatically improved scientists’ understanding of the Moon’s mass and lead to the discovery that the Moon’s center of mass is displaced from its geometric center.

Object on or Related to Site

Object Name: Ranger 9
Cospar: 1965-023A
Norad: N/A
Location: Precise location unknown or undisclosed.
Launch Date: 21 March 1965, 21:37:00 UT
Landing Date: 24 March 1965, 14:08:19 UT
Deployment: N/A
End Date: N/A
Function: Lunar imagery.
Image Source: NASA

Description

Ranger 9 was a Lunar probe, launched in 1965 by NASA. It was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. These images were broadcast live on television to millions of viewers across the United States.