Completed · Success
Ranger 8 was a NASA lunar impactor designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. It returned 7,137 photographs of good quality before impacting Mare Tranquillitatis on 20 February 1965.
- Destinations
- Moon
- Launch vehicle
- Atlas-Agena B
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral, United States
- Countries
- United States
- Mission types
- Impactor
Chronology
Mission timeline
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Ranger 8 · Spacecraft
Destinations: Moon
Trajectory record
Trajectory dataset not yet available
No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through August 24, 2026
- Ranger 8 - NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details — NSSDCAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Moon Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context