Ranger 6

Ranger 6 was a spacecraft of the U.S. space agency NASA. She was the sixth probe as part of the Ranger program for exploration of the moon. She was the first probe in the so-called Block III design. Since the previous probes had maximum met some of their tasks, the Block II design has been revised. These changes led to the design. The most important changes was an improved design of the solar panels, installing a backup battery with a duration of 9 hours and renouncing the landing capsule with seismological experiments. Ranger 6 weighed 381 kg. Like the previous missions they should make before impact images of the lunar surface and send back to Earth.

Mission

Ranger 6 was launched on January 30, 1964 on an Atlas - Agena B rocket from LC - 12 of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. After reaching the parking orbit, the Agena upper stage and Ranger 6 lighted headed for the moon. On 2 February 1964 65.5 hours after the start of the probes suggested to have at the moon on transmitted without pictures. Probably a short circuit in the TV system had destroyed the cameras.