58 lat temu, 17.02.1965 o 17:05 z wyrzutni LC-12 na Cape Canaveral została wystrzelona RN Atlas-LV3 Agena-B, która wyniosła sondę księżycową
Ranger 8.
Próbnik po dotarciu do Księżyca wykonał w ciągu 23 minut 7137 wysokiej rozdzielczości zdjęć powierzchni Księżyca zanim uderzył w powierzchnię Księżyca o godzinie 09:57:37 UTC 20 lutego 1965 roku.
Uderzenie miało miejsce w obszarze Mare Tranquillitatis (2,67°N, 24,65°E).
Prędkość zderzenia wynosiła ok. 2,68 km/s.
Była to druga udana misja z serii Ranger, po Ranger 7 .
Sonda składała się z sześciokątnej aluminiowej podstawy o średnicy 1,5 m, na której zamontowano jednostki napędowe i zasilające, zwieńczonej ściętą stożkową wieżą, w której znajdowały się kamery telewizyjne.
Próbnik przewoził sześć kamer telewizyjnych Vidicon, 2 szerokokątne i 4 wąskokątne.
Całkowita wysokość statku kosmicznego miała 3,6 m, a jego masa wynosiła 366,87 kg.
1965 February 17 - . 17:05 GMT - . Launch Site: Cape Canaveral. Launch Complex: Cape Canaveral LC12. LV Family: Atlas. Launch Vehicle: Atlas Agena B.
Ranger 8 - . Payload: RA-8. Mass: 366 kg (806 lb). Nation: USA. Agency: JPL, NASA. Program: Ranger. Class: Moon. Type: Lunar probe. Spacecraft Bus: Ranger. Spacecraft: Ranger 6-7-8-9. Decay Date: 1965-02-20 . USAF Sat Cat: 1086 . COSPAR: 1965-010A.
Returned 7137 photos before lunar impact. The Atlas- Agena B booster injected the Agena and Ranger 8 into an Earth parking orbit at 185 km altitude 7 minutes after launch. Fourteen minutes later a 90 second burn of the Agena put the spacecraft into lunar transfer trajectory, and several minutes later the Ranger and Agena separated. The Ranger solar panels were deployed, attitude control activated, and spacecraft transmissions switched from the omni-directional antenna to the high-gain antenna by 21:30 GMT. On 18 February at a distance of 160,000 km from Earth the planned mid-course manoeuvre took place, involving reorientation and a 59 second rocket burn. During the 27 minute manoeuvre, spacecraft transmitter power dropped severely, so that lock was lost on all telemetry channels. This continued intermittently until the rocket burn, at which time power returned to normal. The telemetry dropout had no serious effects on the mission. A planned terminal sequence to point the cameras more in the direction of flight just before reaching the Moon was cancelled to allow the cameras to cover a greater area of the Moon's surface.
Ranger 8 reached the Moon on 20 February 1965. The first image was taken at 9:34:32 GMT at an altitude of 2510 km. Transmission of 7,137 photographs of good quality occurred over the final 23 minutes of flight. The final image taken before impact has a resolution of 1.5 meters. The spacecraft encountered the lunar surface in a direct hyperbolic trajectory, with incoming asymptotic direction at an angle of -13.6 degrees from the lunar equator. The orbit plane was inclined 16.5 degrees to the lunar equator. After 64.9 hours of flight, impact occurred at 09:57:36.756 GMT on 20 February 1965 in Mare Tranquillitatis at approximately 2.67 degrees N, 24.65 degrees E. Impact velocity was slightly less than 2.68 km/s.
http://www.astronautix.com/f/february17.htmlLast image taken by Ranger 8 camera-A from a distance of 4.2 km, 2 seconds before impact on February 20, 1965. The area shown is at 2.7 N, 24.55 E and the image is about 1.4 km across. The right side of the image is missing because Ranger 8 crashed before completing transmission. (JPL/NASA)https://www.drewexmachina.com/2015/02/17/50-years-ago-today-the-launch-of-ranger-8/https://twitter.com/airandspace/status/1628188355371335681https://twitter.com/ron_eisele/status/175856191033568505717 February 1965. 17.05.00 UTC/GMT. Launch of Ranger 8 from Cape Canaveral LC-12. US spacecraft 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. (Slow motion film).
https://twitter.com/airandspace/status/1758973116091367752On this day in 1965, the Ranger 8 spacecraft launched on a mission to the Moon. It took more than 7,000 high-resolution images of the Moon before impacting the lunar surface.
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https://twitter.com/ron_eisele/status/175965250089269282820 February 1965. Ranger 8, US spacecraft designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during final minutes of flight, impacted Mare Tranquillitatis. Velocity approximately 6,000 mph. Crater approximately 40 ft. wide.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/ranger-8/in-depth/https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/ranger-8http://www.astronautix.com/r/ranger6-7-8-9.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_8https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/ranger_bl3.htm