The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

program (1954–1958). When TRW merged with Fujitsu,
Ramo was appointed vice-chairman and then chairman of
the TRW-Fujitsu board. He also served as a member of the
White House Energy Research and Development Advisory
Council, the advisory committee on science and foreign
affairs for the State Department, and chairman of the
President’s Commission of Science and Technology.
Ramo earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the
California Institute of Technology (1960).
range safety officer
The person responsible for the safe launching of a spacecraft.
The range safety officer has the authority to order
the remote destruction of an unmanned rocket if the
rocket shows signs of flying out of control.
Ranger
The first of three American programs of unmanned spacecraft
intended to pave the way for the Apollo lunar landings.
The Ranger probes were designed to return data en
route to the Moon and then crash into the lunar surface,
sending back images from an altitude of about 1,300 km
up to the point of impact. Rangers 1 and 2 were test missions.
Rangers 3, 4, and 5 carried a capsule, containing a
seismometer, which was intended to be jettisoned and
then decelerated by retro-rocket in order to make a rough
but survivable landing. However, equipment failures
dogged the first six missions, some of them blamed on
heat-sterilization procedures meant to destroy microbes
and thus avoid contaminating the Moon. Because of
these failures, NASA announced that henceforth
unmanned lunar landing spacecraft, including Rangers
and Surveyors, would be assembled in clean rooms and
treated with germ-killing substances to prevent contamination
without damaging sensitive electronic components.
The final three flights of the series, Ranger 7, 8, and
9, were a complete success, returning a total of more than
Ranger Missions
Ranger Ranger spacecraft. NASA
Ranger 339
17,000 photos with a resolution of 0.25 to 1.5 m. Millions
of Americans followed live TV coverage of the final
descent of Ranger 9 into the crater Alphonsus. The
Ranger program was followed by Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor.
(See table, “Ranger Missions.”)
Launch
Vehicle: Atlas-Agena B
Site: Cape Canaveral
Spacecraft Launch Lunar Impact Impact Site No. of Photos Mass (kg)
Ranger 1 Aug. 23, 1961 — — — 306
Ranger 2 Nov. 18, 1961 — — — 304
Ranger 3 Jan. 26, 1962 — — — 327
Ranger 4 Apr. 23, 1962 Apr. 26, 1962 Far-side — 328
Ranger 5 Oct. 18, 1962 — — — 340
Ranger 6 Jan. 30, 1964 Feb. 2, 1964 Sea of Tranquility — 362
Ranger 7 Jul. 28, 1964 Jul. 31, 1964 Sea of Clouds 4,316 362
Ranger 8 Feb. 17, 1965 Feb. 20, 1965 Sea of Tranquility 7,137 366
Ranger 9 Mar. 21, 1965 Mar. 24, 1965 Crater Alphonsus 5,814 366