Ranger 4
Ranger 4 — the first US spacecraft to reach the Moon (launched 23 April 1962), though not as anyone intended. An onboard failure left it completely dead; silent and blind, it coasted on and crashed on the lunar far side, returning no data. (Impact site approximate.)
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA / JPL
- Launched
- April 23, 1962
- Status
- Lost
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1.01 AU
- Computed from the cached position
- Distance from Earth
- 0.869 AU
- Computed from cached positions
- Distance from Mercury
- 0.628 AU
- Computed from cached positions
Mission
Ranger 4 achieved a genuine first inside a total failure. Launched on 23 April 1962, the spacecraft suffered an onboard computer or timer failure soon after launch that left it completely inert — no course corrections, no camera, no telemetry. Yet its trajectory happened to carry it to the Moon, and on 26 April the dead craft struck the lunar far side. It was the first US spacecraft to reach the Moon — a milestone reached by a corpse. Ranger 4 returned not a single measurement or image; the achievement was purely one of trajectory. For a programme desperate for a success, even touching the Moon blind was a bitter kind of progress.
First US spacecraft to reach the Moon — but a dead craft: an onboard failure had left it silent, and it crashed on the far side returning no data.
Images
Images from open archives · credit shown per image