Mission Summary
The final spacecraft of NASA's original robotic photography series, this probe transmitted 5,814 close-up photographs before impact, including images with details far beyond Earth-based telescopes. With the overall engineering design now highly reliable, scientists used this last flight to target a completely different kind of landscape: the rugged, crater-pitted highlands, rather than the smooth, flat plains of the earlier missions.
The flight path was incredibly accurate. The rocket gave the probe a perfect start, and a routine steering tweak by ground control set it on a direct line for Alphonsus crater, a massive, ancient scar on the lunar surface that scientists suspected might still have volcanic activity.
What made Ranger 9 unforgettable was how the data reached the public. On March 24, 1965, during the final nineteen minutes of the flight, the spacecraft turned on its six television cameras. This time, NASA routed the incoming signal directly into the commercial television networks. Millions of people watched live on their TVs at home as the lunar surface grew closer and closer, revealing intricate networks of ridges and small craters inside Alphonsus. The probe successfully transmitted thousands of clear pictures before crashing into the crater floor at 5,970 miles per hour, bringing a highly successful close to America's first major lunar exploration program.
Sources and notes can be found on the Sources page.
