In the early days of lunar exploration, no one knew exactly what the surface of our satellite was really like. On July 31, 1964, NASA obtained the first close-up photographs of the Moon taken by Ranger 7.
The 1964 short documentary ‘Lunar Bridgehead’ produced by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory chronicles the moments before and after the Ranger 7 mission 60 years ago.
The mission was intended to obtain small-scale photos of the topography on parts of the Moon’s surface, with an eye toward a future human journey, which was accomplished five years later.
Ranger 7 was the first successful U.S. mission to explore the Moon. The craft, which included two wings of solar panels and six television cameras, was 3.6 meters tall and was built at JPL. It was launched on July 28, 1964.
The spacecraft sent back more than 4,300 photos. Engineers at the Goldstone tracking station in the Mojave Desert were the first to catch a glimpse of the first images of the lunar surface. The craft eventually crashed into the lunar surface.
