The Ranger Spacecraft. NASA public domain image colelction.

(January 30, 1964) The Ranger fleet of spacecraft launched in the mid-sixties provided for the first time live television transmissions of the Moon from lunar orbit. These transmissions resolved surface features as small as 10 inches across and provided over 17,000 images of the lunar surface. These detailed photographs allowed scientists and engineers to study the Moon in greater detail than ever before thus allowing for the design of a spacecraft that would one day land men of Earth on its surface...Image # : p2888a