Idaho Skies Transcript for April 24th and 25th

PAUL
Welcome to Idaho Skies for April 24th and 25th. We’re your hosts, Paul...

RACHEL
...and Rachel.

PAUL
On April 23, 1962, NASA launched the Ranger 4 spacecraft to the moon.

RACHEL
The ten foot tall spacecraft looked a lot like a tinker toy creation.

PAUL
It weighed 730 pounds and was powered with two solar arrays measuring 17 feet across.

RACHEL
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed the Ranger series of spacecraft to send close up images of the lunar surface as the spacecraft approached the moon.

PAUL
This was early in the space age, so the Ranger spacecraft did not carry retro rockets to slow down for a safe landing.

SOUND OF CRASH

RACHEL
Ranger 4 carried a seismometer to measure moonquakes in an attempt to learn something about the moon’s interior structure.

PAUL
The seismograph was packed inside a balsa wood sphere in the hopes it would survive the impact if it were jettisoned just prior to impact.

RACHEL
It also carried a gamma ray detector to learn more about the radiation environment that future Apollo astronauts would face.

PAUL
Ranger 4 was the first (American) spacecraft to reach out and touch the moon.

RACHEL
Fourth time is the charm

PAUL
Unfortunately, the spacecraft failed to deploy its solar array.

RACHEL
The result was that the dead spacecraft impacted on the far side of the moon on April 26th.

PAUL
Nonetheless, it was the first American spacecraft to reach another world.

RACHEL
And that was quite an accomplishment considering just how difficult it was to get rockets to place their spacecraft into Earth orbit back in 1962.

PAUL
That’s Idaho Skies for the 24th and 25th of April.

RACHEL
Be sure to follow us on Twitter at Idaho Skies for this week’s event reminders and sky maps.

For Idaho Skies this is Rachel...

PAUL
...and Paul.

RACHEL
Dark skies and bright stars.