Space Cover #273: Ranger 7 at 50Later this month will be the 50th anniversary of the launch of the unmanned Ranger 7 probe, the first American probe to send back in-situ photos of the moon. This launch was documented on the Spacecraft Cachet cover above, machine canceled at Cape Canaveral on the launch date, July 28, 1964. It is listed as Vukotich #84, with 1000 being produced, carrying both Cape Canaveral and Patrick AFB machine cancels.
On July 31, 1964 the probe sent back 4,308 images of the moon before it impacted the lunar surface!
So why was Ranger 7 significant? Well, consider that the only other probe to send back pictures of the moon was the Russian Luna 3 that sent back a low resolution picture of the lunar far side in 1959. And consider that Rangers 1 – 6 were not successful. And consider that less than five years later, photos from the moon were taken by people who were actually standing there…
Above is the descriptive insert that the Spacecraft Cachet folks put into the cover. Note the expectations there: It was hoped that 3250 pictures planned to be taken, and as noted above 4,308 were actually taken. Note the drawing of what the "first picture" was expected to show, versus the actual first picture below:
And note what the drawing of what the "last picture" was expected to show, versus the actual last picture below:
The fuzzy area at the right of the picture indicates that Ranger 7 impacted the moon just before this picture was completely transmitted.
Ranger 7 was the first of many successful American lunar probes that helped blaze the way to the Apollo moon landings. In today's world of hi-res photos of the entire lunar surface, it is hard to comprehend the magnitude of the achievement of Ranger 7. It was the first really successful American lunar probe, and set the bar for the subsequent American lunar program.
posted 07-13-2014 04:18 AM
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