Preparing Ranger

FIRMING UP THE PLAN

The spectacular Soviet achievement of photographing the far-side of the Moon in October 1959 prompted NASA to revise its planning. The Air Force was developing the Agena В as a variant of an upper stage which could restart its engine in space. The payload projection for low Earth orbit of an Atlas-Agena В exceeded that projected for the two-stage Atlas-Vega, and almost matched that of the three-stage variant. On 7 November 1959 NASA decided that all satellites scheduled to use the Atlas-Vega should be transferred to the Atlas-Agena В; the Vega stage would be used only for lunar probes. But on 11 December it was decided that the lunar probes would switch too, and the Vega was cancelled. The Atlas-Agena В was seen as the interim launch vehicle for deep-space probes, pending the introduction of the Atlas-Centaur.

On 21 December 1959 Abe Silverstein of the Office of Space Flight Development at NASA headquarters told JPL to prepare five spacecraft to reconnoitre the Moon in 1961-1962. The objectives now included obtaining high-resolution pictures of the lunar surface during the terminal approach, which would require to be transmitted in real-time since the vehicle would be destroyed on impact. This imaging was to make up for the loss of the orbiter – which Silverstein had ordered in June 1959 and now cancelled because a review had judged it to be too complex for this early point in the program. In addition, Silverstein told JPL to consider adding instruments to perform particles and fields investigations during the cruise to the Moon. This project was to be completed within 36 months, in order to pass on to the next project of the lunar exploration program. It was acknowledged to be a high-risk venture on a short-term schedule, but was intended, in addition to studying the Moon, “to seize the initiative in space exploration from the Soviets”.

In January 1960 Silverstein created the Lunar and Planetary Programs Division, with Edgar M. Cortright as its Director. In March Oran W. Nicks was made Chief of Lunar Flight Systems, and given the task of monitoring the project’s progress. After NASA formally approved the project in February 1960, Clifford I. Cummings at

JPL proposed that it be named ‘Ranger’.[11] Silverstein was not keen, but the moniker was made official and on 4 May Cummings announced it to the Los Angeles Herald – Examiner.

At the end of 1959 Keith Glennan reorganised NASA headquarters. The dominant office in terms of budget and activities remained Silverstein’s, now called the Office of Space Flight Programs.

W. H. Pickering reorganised JPL at the end of 1959 by creating the Lunar Program Office under Cummings, with James D. Burke as his deputy. Cummings duly made Burke Ranger Spacecraft Project Manager. JPL managed the new NASA projects by superimposing small ‘project offices’ on the existing functionally arrayed technical (‘line’) divisions that comprised the laboratory’s core expertise. Indeed, the Ranger Project Office initially comprised only two men and a secretary. Burke’s task was to allocate funds, plan, schedule, assign tasks to the divisions and review progress, but he had no direct supervisory authority over the work since each division did its own design and development and divisional chiefs set their own priorities and assigned engineers within their bailiwicks. Initially, Ranger was the focus of activity, but as other projects claimed attention, most notably the Mariner interplanetary missions, engineers were reassigned and Ranger suffered.

As another element of his restructuring, Pickering added a Systems Division to develop, build and test spacecraft, and a Space Sciences Division to install scientific experiments. For Ranger, the Systems Division would be responsible for systems analysis, including launch to orbit, departure to the Moon, and the requirements of midcourse and terminal manoeuvres; the design and integration of the spacecraft’s systems, including qualification and performance testing, and quality assurance; and assembly and checkout for launch. It would call upon other divisions as subcontractors. Harris M. Schurmeier was the Chief of the Systems Division, and as such he became Burke’s main point of contact with the technical side of the laboratory. In February I960 Schurmeier appointed Gordon P. Kautz as the Project Engineer for Ranger in the Systems Division, but in October Kautz was reassigned as Burke’s deputy and Allen E. Wolfe took the vacated post. The Space Sciences Division, led by Albert R. Hibbs, consolidated JPL’s experimenters into a single group. The Guidance Division was headed by Eugene Giberson. The Engineering Mechanics Division was under Charles Cole. The Telecommunications Division was under Eberhardt Rechtin. The Propulsion Division was under Geoffrey Robillard.

In May 1960 NASA directed JPL to start work on the Surveyor project. As it was doing with Ranger and Mariner, JPL sought to maximise commonality of systems between the two forms of the Surveyor – one for orbital reconnaissance of the Moon and the other to soft land and investigate the physical and chemical properties of the surface. It was expected that because a rough landing from a direct approach would be simpler than entering orbit or soft landing, Ranger would be able to be completed while Surveyor was in development.

Management issues 57