Mission Description
Launch: July 28, 1964
Impacted Moon: July 31, 1964, at 13:25:49 UT
Landing Site: Mare Cognitum, 10.35°S lat., 339.42°E long.
The mission objective of Ranger 7, to obtain close-up pictures of the lunar surface that would be of benefit to both the scientific program and the manned program, was carried out flawlessly. The mission terminated with the acquisition of some 4000 television records of a preselected area of the lunar surface. The signals from the six television cameras aboard the spacecraft were transmitted during the last 17 minutes of the flight. The picture taking spanned a distance range from slightly more than a lunar radius to approximately 480 meters above the surface.
Selection of the Target Site
From the standpoint of the lunar manned spaceflight program, it was desired that the target area be one of typical mare and near the lunar equator. The selected region was a relatively detached mare or sinus between Oceanus Procellarum and Mare Nubium, bounded by the Riphaean Montes on one side and the bright cratered area containing Guericke Crater and Parry-Bonpland Crater on the other.