Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2019

12 MAY-JUNE 2019 ASTRONAUTICS In spite of these early failures, the Jet Propulsion Lab- oratory (JPL) decided to launch a third spacecraft, charged with impacting the Moon, documenting the approach using a camera, and, a fraction of a second before the impact, ejecting a spherical capsule contain- ing a seismometer able to withstand a hard landing. Unfortunately, the Ranger 3 Agena rocket gave a stronger thrust than expected and the spacecraft