Program initiation
Ranger was the name given to the earliest set of American space missions authorized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to explore the Moon and to the spacecraft developed to carry them out. The missions were planned and executed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology, which NASA had designated as its lead center for lunar and planetary missions.
In January 1959, shortly after NASA had been established and JPL had become affiliated with it, the laboratory proposed a 5-year program of space missions to the Moon, Venus and Mars, starting in 1960. With some modifications, this program was adopted by NASA and titled Vega. In the next few months, as it became clear that launch vehicle development was falling short of expectations, Vega was canceled and replaced by less ambitious programs — Ranger for the lunar missions and Mariner for planetary missions.
As agreed upon in December 1959, five Ranger...
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Bibliography
Hall, R. C. (1977) Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger. Washington: NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office (NASA SP-4210).
Koppes, C. R. (1982) JPL and the American Space Program. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Newell, H. E. (1980) Beyond the Atmosphere: Early Years of Space Science. Washington: NASA Scientific and Technical Information Branch.
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© 1997 Chapman & Hall
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Snyder, C.W. (1997). Ranger missions . In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_337
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4520-4_337
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