Editing Ranger 8 (section)

=== General ===
[[File:Ranger 6789.svg|thumb|left|300px|Diagram of Ranger 8.]]
[[Ranger program|Ranger spacecraft]] were originally designed, beginning in 1959, in three distinct phases called "blocks". Rangers [[Ranger 6|6]], [[Ranger 7|7]], 8, and [[Ranger 9|9]] were the Block 3 versions. The spacecraft consisted of a [[hexagon]]al [[aluminium|aluminum]] frame base 1.5 m across on which was mounted the propulsion and power units, topped by a truncated conical tower that held the television cameras. Two solar panel wings, each 739&nbsp;mm wide by 1537&nbsp;mm long, extended from opposite edges of the base with a full span of 4.6 m, and a pointable high-gain dish antenna was hinge mounted at one of the corners of the base away from the solar panels. A cylindrical quasi-[[omnidirectional antenna]] was seated on top of the conical tower. The overall height of the spacecraft was 3.6 m.<ref name="NSDC Mission Profile" />

Propulsion for the mid-course trajectory correction was provided by a 224 N thrust [[monopropellant]] [[hydrazine]] engine with four jet-vane vector control. Orientation and attitude control about three [[Cartesian coordinate system|axes]] was enabled by twelve nitrogen gas jets coupled to a system of three gyroscopes, four primary Sun sensors, two secondary Sun sensors, and an Earth sensor. Power was supplied by 9,792 silicon [[solar cell]]s contained in the two solar panels, giving a total array area of 2.3 square meters and producing 200 W. Two 1200-watt-hour <abbr title="silver-zinc oxide>AgZnO</abbr> batteries rated at 26.5 V with a capacity for 9 hours of operation provided power to each of the separate communication/TV camera chains. Two 1000-watt-hour AgZnO batteries stored power for spacecraft operations.<ref name="NSDC Mission Profile" />