Editing Ranger 8 (section)

==Mission profile==
[[File:Ranger8 launch.jpg|thumb|Launch of Ranger 8 by an [[Atlas-Agena]] rocket (Atlas 196D)|200x200px]]
The [[Atlas (rocket family)|Atlas 196D]] and [[RM-81 Agena|Agena]] B 6006 boosters performed nominally, injecting the Agena and Ranger 8 into an [[Earth]] parking [[orbit]] at 185&nbsp;km [[altitude]] after launch. Fourteen minutes later a 90-second burn of the Agena put the spacecraft into lunar transfer [[trajectory]], and several minutes later the Ranger and Agena separated. The Ranger [[solar panel]]s were deployed, [[Spacecraft attitude control|attitude control]] activated, and spacecraft transmissions switched from the omniantenna to the high-gain antenna by 21:30 UT. On February 18, at a distance of 160,000&nbsp;km from Earth, the planned mid-course maneuver took place, involving reorientation and a 59-second rocket burn. During the 27-minute maneuver, spacecraft transmitter power dropped severely, so that lock was lost on all telemetry channels. This continued intermittently until the rocket burn ended, at which time power returned to normal. The telemetry dropout had no serious effects on the mission. A planned terminal sequence to point the cameras more in the direction of flight just before reaching the [[Moon]] was cancelled to allow the cameras to cover a greater area of the Moon's surface.<ref name="NSDC Mission Profile" /> 

Ranger 8 reached the Moon on February 20, 1965.<ref name=Darling>
{{cite book
 | last      = Darling
 | first     = David
 | title     = The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity| page      = [https://archive.org/details/completebookofsp00davi/page/339 339]
 | url       = https://archive.org/details/completebookofsp00davi
 | url-access = registration
 | year      = 2003
 | publisher = John Wiley & Sons
 | location  = Hoboken, New Jersey
 | isbn      = 978-0-471-05649-2
}}
</ref> The first image was taken at 9:34:32 UT at an altitude of 2510&nbsp;km. Transmission of 7,137 [[photograph]]s<ref name=Darling/> of good quality occurred over the final 23 minutes of flight. The final image taken before impact has a resolution of 1.5 meters. <gallery mode="packed" caption="Ranger 8 images">
File:Ranger-moon-image.jpg|Image of the Moon from 302 km, two and a half minutes before impact, showing the craters [[Ritter (crater)|Ritter]] and [[Sabine (crater)|Sabine]].
File:Ranger8-moon.jpg|Image of the Moon from 11 km, 5 seconds before impact, showing  features as small as 4 meters.
</gallery>The spacecraft encountered the lunar surface in a direct [[hyperbolic trajectory]], with incoming [[asymptotic]] direction at an angle of −13.6 degrees from the [[lunar equator]]. The orbit plane was inclined 16.5 degrees to the lunar equator. After 64.9 hours of flight, impact occurred at 09:57:36.756 UT on February 20, 1965, in [[Mare Tranquillitatis]] at approximately 2.67° N, 24.65° E. (The impact site is listed as about 2.72° N, 24.61° E in the initial report "Ranger 8 Photographs of the Moon".) Impact velocity was slightly less than 2.68&nbsp;km/s, approximately 6,000&nbsp;mph. The spacecraft performance was excellent.<ref name="NSDC Mission Profile" />

The impact crater of Ranger 8, approximately 13.5 m wide, was later photographed by ''[[Lunar Orbiter 4]]''.<ref name = "Observing the Moon">
{{cite book
 | last         = North
 | first        = Gerald
 | title        = Observing the Moon
 | date = July 5, 2007
 | page         = 140
 | url          = https://books.google.com/books?id=SA4iUaTIcHsC&pg=PA140
 | isbn         = 978-1-139-46494-9
 | publisher    = Cambridge University Press
 | location     = Cambridge, England, UK
}}
</ref>