Mission type | Lunar impactor | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Operator | NASA | ||||
COSPAR ID | 1965-023A | ||||
SATCAT no. | 1294 | ||||
Mission duration | 2 days, 16 hours, 31 minutes | ||||
Spacecraft properties | |||||
Manufacturer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | ||||
Launch mass | 366.87 kg[1] | ||||
Power | 200 W | ||||
Start of mission | |||||
Launch date | 21 March 1965, 21:37:02[1] | UTC||||
Rocket | Atlas LV-3 Agena-B 204D/AA14 | ||||
Launch site | Cape Canaveral LC-12 | ||||
Lunar impactor | |||||
Impact date | 24 March 1965, 14:08:19.994 | UTC||||
Impact site | 12°50′S 2°22′W / 12.83°S 02.37°W (Alphonsus crater) | ||||
| |||||
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. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras—two wide-angle (channel F, cameras A and B) and four narrow-angle (channel P)—to accomplish these objectives. The cameras were arranged in two separate chains, or channels, each self-contained with separate power supplies, timers, and transmitters so as to afford the greatest reliability and probability of obtaining high-quality television pictures. These images were broadcast live on television to millions of viewers across the United States.[2] No other experiments were carried on the spacecraft.[3]