Failed · Failure
Ranger 6 was a Block 3 Ranger carrying six television vidicon cameras and no other experiments, designed to return high-resolution photographs during the final minutes before lunar impact. It impacted the Moon on target at the eastern edge of Mare Tranquillitatis, but a camera system failure meant no images were returned.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Atlas-Agena B
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral, United States
- Countries
- United States
- Mission types
- Impactor
Chronology
Mission timeline
Launch
Ranger 6 launched
Liftoff occurred at 15:49:09.092 GMT from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 12.
EarthMilestone
Ranger 6 midcourse motor ignited
The JPL postflight report gives an ignition time of 08:57:08 GMT and a 67-second burn; the separate premidcourse and postmidcourse trajectory arcs leave the burn interval unrepresented.
EarthImpact
Ranger 6 impacted the Moon on the eastern edge of Mare Tranquillitatis
JPL postflight analysis gives 09:24:32.18 GMT, 9.39° north latitude, and 21.51° east longitude; it reports 1.6 s timing uncertainty and 21.3 km B-plane position uncertainty.
Moon
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Ranger 6 · 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 6: Postmidcourse lunar approach · January 30, 1964 to February 2, 1964
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 6 - NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details — NSSDCAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- LROC Science Operations Team: Coordinates of Lunar Anthropogenic Targets (28 July 2016) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Ranger VI Mission Description and Performance (JPL TR32-699, December15 1966) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- IERS Earth Orientation Parameters 14 C04 daily series, 1964 — 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
- 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