24 March 1965
Last Quarter, 55% lit
Live from the Moon
Ranger 9 fell into the crater Alphonsus with its cameras running and the pictures going straight out on American network television, captioned LIVE FROM THE MOON.
Earlier Rangers had sent their pictures to scientists; this one sent them to everybody, right up to the frame taken a quarter of a second before impact. Millions of people watched a spacecraft die at 9,600 kilometres an hour on a Wednesday morning.
- Date
- 24 March 1965
- Moon computed for
- 14:00 local time, UTC
- Phase
- Last Quarter
- Illuminated
- 55%
Source: NASA Ranger 9 mission report, JPL TR 32-800