July 31, 1964 - Ranger 7 radioed to earth today the first close-up pictures of the moon — a historic collection of more than 4,000 pictures one thousand times as clear as anything ever seen through earthbound telescopes.
Scientists hailed the achievement, which exceeded all expectations, as by far the greatest advance in lunar astronomy since Galileo.
They said the pictures not only represented a great leap in man’s knowledge of the moon, but also, on a more practical level, gave encouragement that the lunar surface was suitable for Project Apollo’s manned lunar landings — possibly in 1969.
The still pictures were snapped and transmitted in the last 17 minutes before the spacecraft crashed into an area northwest of the Sea of Clouds. They showed craters three feet in diameter and 1 to 1½ feet deep.
The disclosures of what Ranger 7 had achieved were made at a packed news conference in Pasadena, Calif., by a team of scientists headed by Dr. Gerard Kuiper of the University of Arizona.
The conference, televised nationally, was held in the auditorium of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA.
“This is a great day for science,” the eminent astronomer said at the start, “and a great day for the United States. What has been achieved is truly remarkable. We have made progress in resolution [clarity of pictures] not by a factor of 10 — not by a factor of 100, which would have been remarkable — but by a factor of 1,000.”
As a series of ten samples of the Ranger 7 photographs were flashed on a screen, Dr. Kuiper pointed out some of the more interesting features.
The tentative impression of the scientific team was that the lunar surface dust or other substance was not thick enough to swallow an astronaut landing craft. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker of the U.S. Geological Survey at Flagstaff, Ariz., when asked if he would like to step out on the moon, said: “I don’t think I’d be very worried.”
The still pictures were the first photographs taken from a spacecraft of the side of the moon facing the earth. However, in October 1959, the Soviets photographed the far side of the moon — the side always hidden from the earth — with their Lunik 3 satellite.
But while these provided the first solid though not surprising evidence of what the hidden side looked like, the resolution was slight. The Soviet pictures thus contributed rough outlines for the first far-side lunar maps but no new understanding of the precise nature of the lunar terrain.
Ranger 7 told a different story in far greater detail.
President Johnson called the flight “a basic step forward in our orderly program to assemble the scientific knowledge necessary for man’s trip to the moon.”
“The pictures obtained of the lunar surface should prove extremely useful,” he said. “They will be a guide in constructing the lunar excursion module and in planning the trip. We shall now be able to better map out our descent route. We’ll be able to build our lunar landing equipment with greater certainty and knowledge of the conditions which our astronauts will encounter on the moon.
The President praised those who participated in the successful venture: “On behalf of a grateful nation, let me again congratulate you on this magnificent achievement. All of you today have helped further the peaceful exploration of space.”
At the limestone headquarters of NASA, there was unabashed elation over the success of the flight. “Everybody here is happy as hell,” said one jubilant spokesman.
Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s
Comments