Feb. 21, 1965 - The Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed into its target area on the moon early today after sending back about 7,000 pictures of the lunar surface.
The point of impact (circled) was in an area known as the Sea of Tranquility. It is slightly east-northeast of the center of a full moon and is a probable site for an astronaut landing.
The craft, launched from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on Wednesday, sped 234,300 miles to the moon in just under 65 hours.
The impact came at 4:58 a.m. Eastern standard time, just 7 seconds later than had been planned. The craft hit within 15 miles of its aiming point.
Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., were jubilant at the quality and resolution of the photographs.
However, the pictures failed to resolve the question of whether the lunar surface was hardened and porous or was covered with a thick layer of dust.
This question will have a strong bearing on the design and construction of the spacecraft that is to land U.S. astronauts on the moon at the end of the decade.
Dr. William Pickering, the laboratory’s director, said the pictures were the same quality as those from Ranger 7, but they covered a much wider area.
Among the other achievements of the shot were almost twice as many pictures; good evidence that most of the seas, or flat plains of the moon, are relatively similar in character; and the appearance under the high-resolution Ranger cameras of certain new features such as rills, dimples, and rock-like material.
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