Ranger 3

  1962-001A

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The 336 kg Ranger III (P-34) was launched at 2030:11 by Atlas Agena B from Cape Canaveral. The Atlas failed to respond to ground commands and flew on autopilot, hotter than planned. The first Agena burn was successful, but the vehicle entered a higher than planned 200 x 507 km x 29.4 deg parking orbit. The Agena B reignited and inserted the Ranger into translunar coast at 2050:09. The trajectory would miss the Moon by 32000 km. A course correction at 1000 on Jan 27 was made in the wrong direction; at 1729 on Jan 28 the probe made its terminal orientation maneuver. The probe made its closest approach to the Moon, 37000 km, at 2348 on Jan 28, and went out into solar orbit. The last transmissions from Ranger III were returned on Feb 2.

Ranger 3 had 6 kg of prop for the midcourse engine. Retro was 97 kg and capsule was 45 kg.

Ranger 3
Date	Time	Event	Orbit
1962 Jan 26	2030:11	Launch by Atlas Agena
		BECO
	2032	T+2:10? Booster sep
	2032:31	57 km, 2.94 km/s
	2034	T+4:40? Fairing
	2034	T+4:43? Atlas sep
	2034	T+4:56? Agena B MES-1
	2037?	T+7:23? Agena B MECO-1	200 x 507 x 29.4
	2049?	MES-2
	2050:09	MECO-2	275 x -1006572 x 29.54
	2052?	Agena sep
	2100?	Agena solid retro
1962 Jan 27	1000	TCM	-5984 x -1337582 x 31.50
1962 Jan 28	1729	Terminal mvr
1962 Jan 28	2324:53	Flyby Moon 35134 km over 227.8, -45.2	35132 x -41633 x 133.75
1962 Feb 2		End of transmissions	0.98 x 1.16 AU x 0.40

Payload:

• TV camera

• Gamma Ray Spectrometer

• Radar Altimeter