Mission Type: Orbiter
Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Agena B (no. 1 / Atlas D no. 111 / Agena B no. 6001)
Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 12
NASA Center: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Spacecraft Mass: 306.18 kg
Spacecraft Instruments:
1) electrostatic analyzer
2) photoconductive particle detectors
3) Rubidium vapor magnetometer
4) triple-coincidence cosmic-ray telescope
5) cosmic-ray integrating ionization chamber
6) x-ray scintillation detectors
7) micrometeoroid dust particle detectors
8) Lyman alpha scanning telescope
References:
Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, by Asif A. Siddiqi, NASA Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24

Ranger 1 was the first in a series of standardized spacecraft designed to roughland simple instrumented capsules on the surface of the Moon and take photos of the lunar surface during its descent to the Moon.

The spacecraft consisted of a tubular central body connected to a hexagonal base containing basic equipment required for control and communications. Power was provided by solar cells and a silver-zinc battery.

Ranger 1's specific mission was to test performance of the new technologies intended for operational Ranger flights and to study the nature of particles and fields in interplanetary space.

Its intended orbit was 60,000 x 1.1 million km. Ranger 1 was the first American spacecraft to use a parking orbit around Earth prior to its deep space mission.

In this case, the Agena B upper stage cut off almost immediately after its ignition for translunar injection (instead of firing for 90 seconds). The probe remained stranded in low-Earth orbit (501 x 168 km), and telemetry ceased by 27 August 1961, when the main battery went dead. The spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere three days later.

The cause of the Agena failure was traced to a malfunctioning switch that had prematurely choked the flow of the red fuming nitric acid to the rocket engine.

Editor's Note: This mission profile was adapted from an originally published mission profile in Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000, by Asif A. Siddiqi, NASA Monographs in Aerospace History No. 24.