 | |||||
| Mission type | Lunar impactor | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / JPL | ||||
| COSPAR ID | 1964-007A | ||||
| SATCAT no. | 747 | ||||
| Mission duration | 2 days, 17 hours and 35 minutes | ||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||
| Manufacturer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | ||||
| Launch mass | 364.69 kg[1] | ||||
| Payload mass | 172 kilograms (379 lb) | ||||
| Power | 240 W | ||||
| Start of mission | |||||
| Launch date | January 30, 1964, 15:49:09 GMT[1] | ||||
| Rocket | Atlas LV-3 Agena-B 199D/AA8 | ||||
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral, LC-12 | ||||
| Lunar impactor | |||||
| Impact date | February 2, 1964, 09:24:32 GMT | ||||
| Impact site | 9°20′N 21°31′E / 09.33°N 21.52°E (Mare Tranquillitatis) | ||||
| |||||
Ranger 6 was a lunar probe in the NASA Ranger program, a series of robotic spacecraft of the early and mid-1960s to obtain close-up images of the Moon's surface. It was launched on January 30, 1964 and was designed to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar terrain during the final minutes of flight until impacting the surface. 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. No other experiments were carried on the spacecraft. Due to a failure of the camera system, no images were returned.[2]