Completed · Success
Ranger 9 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 5,814 good contrast photographs before impacting the crater Alphonsus on 24 March 1965.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Atlas-Agena B
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral, United States
- Countries
- United States
- Mission types
- Impactor
Chronology
Mission timeline
Launch
Ranger 9 launched
JPL reports liftoff at 21:37:02.456 GMT (source calendar interpreted as UT1); converted to UTC using IERS 1965 UT1-UTC values.
EarthMilestone
Ranger 9 midcourse motor ignited
JPL reports ignition at 12:30:09 GMT and a 31-second burn. Table 19 gives a postmidcourse fitted state at 12:30:38 GMT; the maneuver interval is not interpolated.
EarthImpact
Ranger 9 impacted crater Alphonsus
JPL reports impact at 14:08:19.999 GMT, 4.4 km from the aiming point. Its postmidcourse navigation solution predicted encounter at 14:08:19.652 GMT with 0.668-second time uncertainty, at 12.914655° south, 2.38115° west.
Moon
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Ranger 9 · 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 9: Postmidcourse lunar approach · March 23, 1965 to March 24, 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 9 - 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 9 Photographic Parameters, JPL TR32-966 — 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