Ranger 1

Ranger 1 was a special part of the Ranger program of the U.S. and was launched on 23 August 1961, an Atlas - Agena B rocket from the launch pad LC -12 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The main task of Ranger 1 was the testing procedures and equipment that were needed for the following space and lunar missions. A secondary objective was to investigate the nature of particles and fields in space.

The spacecraft was designed according to the block -I design of the Ranger Project and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It consisted of an octagonal base with a diameter of 1.5 m, on a four-meter high cone- shaped tower was assembled from aluminum struts. Two solar wings, the 5.2 m or less extended from tip to tip, were also attached to the base. In addition, an antenna was mounted on the bottom of the base. The experiments and the other equipment has been also mounted on the base or on the turret. The total mass of the probe was 306.2 kg. The temperature was passively controlled by the surfaces either gold-plated, painted with white paint or aluminum surfaces were polished.

The Mission

Ranger 1 was first to stay in a park orbit around the earth and to get from there into an 60000-1100000 km high in orbit. The probe was as planned shot in the parking orbit, but the Agena -B upper stage could not be re-ignited to continue to raise the satellite's orbit. When one Ranger broke away from the Agena stage, he got into a to low earth orbit and began to stagger on. On August 30, 1961, he re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up.

The mission of Ranger 1 was only partially successful. The main task of testing the equipment, although could largely be met, but only few scientific data were collected.