Ranger 3

Ranger 3 was a spacecraft of the U.S. space agency NASA. She was the third probe as part of the Ranger program for exploration of the moon.

Mission

Ranger 3 was launched on 26 January 1962 on an Atlas - Agena B rocket from the launch pad LC -12 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Due to technical glitches they missed the moon by 35,000 kilometers. After passing the moon, the probe swung in a solar orbit. The probe was the first of its kind to be developed and launched the so-called block - II type. The aim of this mission was to gain recordings of the lunar surface. The probe images should have within a period of ten minutes before their impact. A soft landing was not planned, that is, they would have been hit hard on the lunar surface and destroyed.

The mission of Ranger 3 was only partially successful.

Source

Werner Büdeler Moons by human hands, page 196-198