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February 17, 1965 - Ranger 8

PostPosted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:47 am
by Webb
Ranger 8 was a 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.

Why?

Ranger 8 took the first close up photos of Mare Tranquillitatis, the site of first manned landing.  Ranger close-ups showed for the first time that even areas on the Moon which looked smooth from Earth were peppered with small impact craters.