jul 31, 1964 - Ranger 7 Successful

Description:

The first NASA space probe to successfully transmit close-up images of the lunar surface back to Earth. It was also the first completely successful flight of the Ranger program. Launched on July 28, 1964, Ranger 7 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. Ranger 7 transmitted over 4,300 photographs during the final 17 minutes of its flight. After 68.6 hours of flight, the spacecraft impacted between Mare Nubium and Oceanus Procellarum.

The overall failure of the Ranger program caused confidence in NASA to drop within the Nixon administration, who were more excited about the achievements of the military divisions.

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