Completed · Success
Ranger 8 was a NASA lunar impactor designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. It returned 7,137 photographs of good quality before impacting Mare Tranquillitatis on 20 February 1965.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Atlas-Agena B
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral, United States
- Countries
- United States
- Mission types
- Impactor
Chronology
Mission timeline
Launch
Ranger 8 launched
JPL reports liftoff at 17:05:00.795 GMT (source calendar interpreted as UT1); converted to UTC with IERS 1965 UT1-UTC values.
EarthMilestone
Ranger 8 midcourse motor ignited
JPL reports ignition at 10:27:09 GMT and a 59-second burn; the postmidcourse fitted state is epoch 10:28:08 GMT. The maneuver interval remains a trajectory gap.
EarthImpact
Ranger 8 impacted Mare Tranquillitatis
JPL reports impact at 09:57:36.756 GMT. Converted to UTC with IERS 1965 UT1-UTC values. Its postmidcourse navigation solution predicted encounter at 09:57:37.18 GMT (5.1-second uncertainty) at 2.7129144° north, 24.806900° east.
Moon
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Ranger 8 · 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 8: Injection and postmidcourse lunar approach · February 17, 1965 to February 20, 1965
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 8 - 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 VIII and IX Part I: Mission Description and Performance (JPL TR32-800, January31 1966) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- IERS Earth Orientation Parameters 14 C04 daily series, 1965 — 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 VIII and IX Mission Description and Performance, JPL TR32-800 Part I — JPLTechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Ranger 8 Photographic Parameters, JPL TR32-965 — JPLTechnical 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