Failed · Failure
The second Ranger test flight remained in low Earth orbit after the Agena B second burn failed; NASA identifies an inoperative roll-control gyroscope as the most probable cause.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Atlas-Agena B
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral, United States
- Countries
- United States
- Mission types
- Technology demonstrator
Chronology
Mission timeline
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Ranger 2 · Spacecraft
Destinations: Moon
Trajectory record
Time-dependent navigation trajectory
Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.
Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.
- Ranger 2: short Earth-orbit TLE coast; 1961 EOP conversion pending · November 19, 1961 to November 19, 1961
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 7, 2026
- Ranger 2 - NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details — NSSDCAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Ranger flight hardware: JPL TR32-699 Appendix C and NASA SP-4210 — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger, NASA SP-4210 (1977) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Space Materials Handbook, Third Edition, NASA SP-3051 (1969) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Ranger 2, NASA Science — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- KeepTrack RANGER 2 Orbital Data (NORAD 00206) — OTHEREphemeris · Supports: mission claims
- EOP C01 IAU1980 long-term Earth-orientation series, 1846–2026 — OTHEREphemeris · Supports: mission claims
- DE421 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFTechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- DE440 lunar mean-Earth and principal-axes frame specification — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- IAU rotational elements and body radii (PCK 00011) — NAIFSpice · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA global lunar height maps, LDEM_4 V3 original PDS source label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- LOLA 2023 south-polar elevation, uncertainty and effective-resolution maps — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Blue Ghost Lunar Lander Seen From Above: LROC site and terrain context — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- Moon Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- SLDEM2015 Blue Ghost region: original PDS elevation-grid label — NASATechnical document · Supports: destination/body context
- JPL Solar System Dynamics Astrodynamic Parameters — JPLOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context