NASA's Ranger 7 descending on the Moon [video]
This video shows NASA's Ranger 7 spacecraft descending toward the Moon's surface. Ranger 7 was the first successful U.S. lunar impact mission, sending back close-up images of the Moon before crashing into it on July 31, 1964.
Background
- Ranger 7 was the first successful American mission to photograph the Moon up close, launched in 1964 during the Space Race with the Soviet Union.<br>- Earlier Ranger missions had failed due to technical issues; Ranger 7 sent back over 4,300 high-resolution images before intentionally crash-landing on the lunar surface.<br>- This success was a major morale boost for NASA and proved that precision targeting and real-time image transmission were possible — critical groundwork for the Apollo landings that followed five years later.<br>- The video shows the final descent sequence as the spacecraft approached the Moon at thousands of miles per hour.