Ranger 4

Ranger 4

Spacecraft· NASA / JPLlost

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.)

Open in 3D viewSee Ranger 4 in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Distance from Sun
1.01 AU
Status
Lost
Launched
1962

Mission & specifications

Mission

Operator
NASA / JPL
Launched
April 23, 1962
Status
Lost

Trajectory

Distance from the Sun
1.01 AU
Distance from Earth
432,750 km
Distance from Venus
0.603 AU

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.

  1. 1962MoonImpactor

    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

The Ranger spacecraft — Ranger 4, dead on arrival, was the first US craft to reach the Moon
NASA / JPL (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons

Images from open archives · credit shown per image