Failed · Failure
Ranger 3 was the first of the Block II Ranger designs, built to televise the lunar surface during descent and rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon. A series of malfunctions beginning with a booster guidance error left it on the wrong trajectory, and it missed the Moon by approximately 36,800 km and entered a heliocentric orbit.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Atlas-Agena B
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral, United States
- Countries
- United States
- Mission types
- Impactor, Lander
Chronology
Mission timeline
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Ranger 3 · 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 3: Postmidcourse lunar approach · January 27, 1962 to January 28, 1962
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 6, 2026
- Ranger 3 - NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details — NSSDCAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- The Ranger III Flight Path and Its Determination from Tracking Data (JPL TR32-563, September15 1965) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Ranger 3 mission overview — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- IERS Earth Orientation Parameters 14 C04 daily series, 1962 — OTHEREphemeris · 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 4: hardware and failed sequencer — NASATechnical document · 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