Science & Tech
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The Atlas-Agena system gave unmanned exploratory missions the power and guidance needed to aim successfully at other worlds, allowing scientists who had previously relied on telescopes to build robot scouts that extended human eyes and ears into space. In January 1962, Atlas-Agena launched Ranger 3 toward the moon with a plan to return pictures until impact on the lunar surface, but Ranger 3 missed and headed for the sun. Across eight Ranger missions, the program returned 11,000 detailed pictures of the lunar surface, including close-ups of the Sea of Tranquility where Apollo 11 would land in 1969.
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