Ranger 3
| Mission type | Lunar impactor | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | NASA | ||||||||||
| Harvard designation | 1962 Alpha 1 | ||||||||||
| COSPAR ID | 1962-001A | ||||||||||
| SATCAT no. | 221 | ||||||||||
| Mission duration | Launch to last scientific data transmitted 1.405 days; launch day to official mission end day 5 days | ||||||||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||||||||
| Manufacturer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory | ||||||||||
| Launch mass | 330 kg | ||||||||||
| Power | 150 W | ||||||||||
| Start of mission | |||||||||||
| Launch date | January 26, 1962, 20:30:00 UTC | ||||||||||
| Rocket | Atlas LV-3B Agena-B | ||||||||||
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral LC-12 | ||||||||||
| End of mission | |||||||||||
| Last contact | Last scientific data transmitted between 12:52 and 1:33 a.m. EST, January 28, 1962 | ||||||||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||||||||
| Reference system | Heliocentric | ||||||||||
| Eccentricity | 0.083 | ||||||||||
| Perihelion altitude | 0.9839 astronomical units (147,190,000 km) | ||||||||||
| Aphelion altitude | 1.163 astronomical units (174,000,000 km) | ||||||||||
| Inclination | 0.398° | ||||||||||
| Period | 406.4 days | ||||||||||
| Lunar flyby (failed impact) | |||||||||||
| Closest approach | January 28, 1962 | ||||||||||
| Distance | 36,874 kilometers (22,912 mi) | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Ranger 3 was a space exploration mission conducted by NASA to study the Moon. The Ranger 3 robotic spacecraft was launched January 26, 1962 as part of the Ranger program. Due to a series of malfunctions, the spacecraft missed the Moon by 22,000 miles (35,000 km) and entered a heliocentric orbit.
The Ranger 3 space probe was designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to impacting on the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar reflectivity of the lunar surface, and to continue testing of the Ranger program for development of lunar and interplanetary spacecraft.