On 31 July 1964, the U.S. lunar probe RANGER 7 sent back the first-ever close-up images of the Moon. Launched on 28 July, RANGER 7 activated its six cameras around 1,300 miles above the lunar surface and, during the next 17 minutes, sent back 4,308 images before it impacted with the lunar surface, near the Sea of the Clouds. The pictures that the RANGER 7 beamed back, which were much more detailed than anything possible with Earth-based telescopes, showed that the lunar surface was not excessively dusty or otherwise treacherous to potential manned spacecraft landings. Seven years to the day after the RANGER 7 mission, on 31 July 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and Jim Irwin deployed their Lunar Rover, becoming the first humans to operate a vehicle on the surface of a planetary body outside of Earth.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 10:20:33 +0000