Ranger 7 launched 1964

Ranger 7, launched July 28, 1964 to the moon, was the first completely successful flight of NASA's Ranger program.  It sent back close-up images of the lunar surface up to its impact.  Ranger 6, launched earlier in 1964 was considered a complete failure, although NASA tried to put a positive spin on it.

After an initial launch was aborted on July 27, it launched without issue the following day.  Ranger 7 reached the moon July 31 and transmitted over 4300 pictures during iits last 17 minutes of flight.  It impacted the surface between Mare Nubium and Mare Cognitum. 

Ranger 6 launched 1964

Ranger 6, launched January 30, 1964, was one of a series of lunar probes designed to take close-up images of the moon.  Everything operated as planned and Ranger 6 landed within a mile of its intended target, but due to a failure of the camera system, no images were returned.  Since the cameras were the only equipment on the probe, no other experiments were planned.

The failure of Ranger 6 came on the heels of the assassination of John F. Kennedy just two months before.  In April 1963, Congress had cut funding to the Ranger program by almost 50%, citing "no success had been achieve with any of the missions to date".  Ranger 5 was lost in October 1962.

NASA officials had hoped Ranger 6 would succeed since a week later, they planned to announce their projected budget for $5.3 billion for 1965.  Ranger 7 had already been budgeted and six months later, it became the first successful lunar probe, sending back high definition pictures of the moon.