1962 25) Because of a malfunction in the Atlas guid- Ranger 3 ance system (due to faulty transistors), the Nation: U.S. (12) probe was inserted into a lunar transfer tra- Objective(s): lunar impact jectory with an excessive velocity. A subse- Spacecraft: P-34 quent incorrect course change ensured that Spacecraft Mass: 330 kg the spacecraft reached the Moon 14 hours Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL early and missed it by 36,793 kilometers on 28 Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Agena B (no. 3 / Atlas D January. The central computer and sequencer no. 121 / Agena B no. 6003) failed and the spacecraft returned no TV Launch Date and Time: 26 January 1962 / images. The probe did, however, provide scien- 20:30 UT tists with the first measurements of interplan- Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 12 etary gamma-ray flux. Ranger 3 eventually Scientific Instruments: entered heliocentric orbit. 1) imaging system 2) gamma-ray spectrometer 26) 3) single-axis seismometer Ranger 4 4) surface-scanning pulse radio Nation: U.S. (13) experiment Objective(s): lunar impact Results: This was the first U.S. attempt to Spacecraft: P-35 achieve impact on the lunar surface. The Block Spacecraft Mass: 331.12 kg II Ranger spacecraft carried a TV camera that Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL used an optical telescope that would allow Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Agena B (no. 4 / Atlas D imaging down to about 24 kilometers above no. 133 / Agena B no. 6004) the lunar surface during the descent. The Launch Date and Time: 23 April 1962 / main bus also carried a 42.6-kilogram instru- 20:50 UT ment capsule that would separate from the Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 12 bus at 21.4 kilometers altitude and then inde- Scientific Instruments: pendently impact on the Moon. Protected by a 1) imaging system balsa-wood outer casing, the capsule was 2) gamma-ray spectrometer designed to bounce several times on the lunar 3) single-axis seismometer surface before coming to rest. The primary 4) surface-scanning pulse radio onboard instrument was a seismometer. experiment 1962 33 Results: This spacecraft, similar in design to 28) Ranger 3, was the first U.S. spacecraft to no name / [Venera] reach another celestial body. A power failure Nation: USSR (14) in the central computer and sequencer Objective(s): Venus impact stopped the spacecraft’s master clock and Spacecraft: 2MV-1 (no. 1) prevented the vehicle from performing any Spacecraft Mass: 1,097 kg of its preplanned operations, such as Mission Design and Management: OKB-1 opening its solar panels. Drifting aimlessly Launch Vehicle: 8K78 (no. T103-12) and without any midcourse corrections, Launch Date and Time: 25 August 1962 / Ranger 4 impacted the Moon on its far side 02:18:45 UT at 12:49:53 UT on 26 April 1962. Impact Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 1 coordinates were 15°30' south latitude and Scientific Instruments: unknown 130°42' west longitude. Although the space- Results: This mission was the first of a second craft did not achieve its primary objective, generation of Soviet deep space probes based the Atlas-Agena-Ranger combination per- on a unified platform called 2MV (“2” for the formed without fault for the first time. second generation, “MV” for Mars and Venus) designed to study Mars and Venus. The series 27) included four variants with the same bus but Mariner 1 with different payload complements: 2MV-1 Nation: U.S. (14) (for Venus impact), 2MV-2 (for Venus flyby), Objective(s): Venus flyby 2MV-3 (for Mars impact), and 2MV-4 (for Mars Spacecraft: P-37 / Mariner R-1 flyby). The landers carried pressurized cap- Spacecraft Mass: 202.8 kg sules; the Venus landers were cooled with an Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL ammonia-based system, while the Mars lan- Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Agena B (no. 5 / Atlas D ders used a system of air conditioners. Both no. 145 / Agena B no. 6901) landers were sterilized with a special sub- Launch Date and Time: 22 July 1962 / stance on recommendation from the Academy 09:21:23 UT of Sciences’s Institute of Microbiology. The Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 12 buses were powered by solar panels with an Scientific Instruments: area of 2.5 square meters capable of providing 1) microwave radiometer 2.6 A. For Venus, the Soviets prepared three 2) infrared radiometer spacecraft for the August-September 1962 3) fluxgate magnetometer launch window, one flyby spacecraft and two 4) cosmic dust detector landers. This first spacecraft was successfully 5) solar plasma spectrometer launched into Earth orbit, but the Blok L 6) energetic particle detectors upper stage cut off its interplanetary burn Results: After approval by NASA Headquarters after only 45 seconds (instead of the planned in September 1961, JPL prepared three space- 240 seconds). Later investigation showed that craft based on the design of the Ranger Block the stage had been set on a tumbling motion I series (therefore named Mariner R) to fly by prior to main engine ignition due to asymmet- Venus in late 1962. Each spacecraft carried a rical firing of stabilizing motors. The space- modest suite (9 kilograms) of scientific instru- craft remained in Earth orbit for three days mentation but had no imaging capability. The before reentering Earth’s atmosphere. spacecraft included 54,000 components and was designed to maintain contact with Earth 29) for 2,500 hours—an ambitious goal given that Mariner 2 the (still unsuccessful) Ranger was designed Nation: U.S. (15) for only 65 hours of contact. Mariner 1 would Objective(s): Venus flyby have flown by Venus at a range of 29,000 kilo- Spacecraft: P-38 / Mariner R-2 meters on 8 December 1962, but due to an Spacecraft Mass: 203.6 kg incorrect trajectory during launch, range Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL safety had to destroy the booster and its pay- Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Agena B (no. 6 / Atlas D load at T+290 seconds. no. 179 / Agena B no. 6902) 34 Deep Space Chronicle Launch Date and Time: 27 August 1962 / Scientific Instruments: unknown 06:53:14 UT Results: This was the second of three Venus Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 12 spacecraft launched by the Soviets in 1962. Scientific Instruments: Like its predecessor launched in August 1962 1) microwave radiometer (also a Venus impact probe), the spacecraft 2) infrared radiometer never left parking orbit around Earth because 3) fluxgate magnetometer of a malfunction in the Blok L upper stage 4) cosmic dust detector designed to send the probe out of Earth orbit 5) solar plasma spectrometer toward Venus. Evidently, the valve that con- 6) energetic particle detectors trolled the delivery of fuel into the combustion Results: NASA brought the Mariner R-2 space- chamber of the Blok L engine (the S1.5400) craft out of storage and launched it just never opened. As a result, the engine never thirty-six days after the failure of Mariner 1. fired. The payload decayed within five days of Mariner 2, as it was known after launch, was launch. equipped with an identical complement of instrumentation to that of its predecessor (see 31) Mariner 1). The mission proved to be the first no name / [Venera] fully successful interplanetary mission per- Nation: USSR (16) formed by any nation. After a midcourse cor- Objective(s): Venus flyby rection on 4 September, the spacecraft flew by Spacecraft: 2MV-2 (no. 1) Venus at a range of 34,762 kilometers on 14 Spacecraft Mass: unknown December 1962. During a 42-minute scan of Mission Design and Management: OKB-1 the planet, Mariner 2 gathered significant Launch Vehicle: 8K78 (no. T103-114) data on the Venusian atmosphere and surface Launch Date and Time: 12 September 1962 / before continuing on to heliocentric orbit. 00:59:13 UT NASA maintained contact until 07:00 UT on Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 1 3 January 1963, when the spacecraft was 87.4 Scientific Instruments: million kilometers from Earth, a new record 1) imaging system for a deep space probe. The data returned (remainder unknown) showed that the surface temperature on Venus Results: Like its two predecessors (launched was at least 425°C with minimal differentia- on 25 August and 1 September 1962), this tion between the day and night sides of the Soviet Venus probe never left parking orbit planet. Mariner 2 also found that there was a around the Earth. The Blok L upper stage, dense cloud layer that extended from 56 to 80 designed to send the spacecraft toward kilometers above the surface. The spacecraft Venus, fired for only 0.8 seconds before shut- detected no discernable planetary magnetic ting down because of unstable attitude. Later field; this lack is partly explained by the great investigation indicated that the upper stage distance of the flyby. After this successful mis- had been put into a tumble by the violent sion, NASA elected to stand down the third shutdown of the third stage. The tumble had spacecraft in the series (Mariner R-3), sched- mixed air bubbles within the propellant uled for the 1964 launch window. tanks, preventing a clean firing of the engine. Unlike its predecessors, this probe was 30) designed for a Venus flyby rather than atmos- no name / [Venera] pheric entry and impact. The spacecraft reen- Nation: USSR (15) tered Earth’s atmosphere two days after Objective(s): Venus impact launch. Spacecraft: 2MV-1 (no. 2) Spacecraft Mass: c. 1,100 kg 32) Mission Design and Management: OKB-1 Ranger 5 Launch Vehicle: 8K78 (no. T103-13) Nation: U.S. (16) Launch Date and Time: 1 September 1962 / Objective(s): lunar impact 02:12:30 UT Spacecraft: P-36 Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 1 Spacecraft Mass: 342.46 kg 1962 35 Mission Design and Management: NASA JPL spacecraft.