The goal of the first two Ranger missions was to place Ranger 1 and its twin Ranger 2 in elliptical orbits around the Earth. Both spacecraft reentered the atmosphere instead of reaching their intended orbits.
Rangers 3, 4, and 5 each carried a television camera to return images of the Moon right up to the point of impact. They also carried a seismometer that was designed to operate after impact. Of the three, only Ranger 4 landed on the Moon, and none of the three probes returned data.
Caption:
NASA planned to place the Ranger 1 satellite into an elliptical orbit around Earth, but it never reaching its intended orbit.
