Today in History

July 31, 1964
Moonshots
At 6:08 Pacific Daylight Time, an unmanned U.S. space probe, Ranger 7, beams the first close-up photograph of the moon's surface back to Earth. For the next 17 minutes Ranger 7 will take more than 4,000 photographs before crashing, as planned, into the moon. Over 1964-65, Rangers 7, 8 and 9 transmit more than 17,000 high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface—including some as close as 1,000 feet, providing valuable information for the planning of the Apollo program.



Today's Feature History Article

The ATHLETE

Debating Manned Moon Missions

Experts provide opposing viewpoints on manned missions to space




 



Advertisement