Jubilant technicians at Jet Propulsion Laboratory after their Ranger 7 ended its successful flight to moon
July 24, 1964 to March 21, 1965 — With President Johnson breathing fire and Congress calling for pretty much everybody's heads, William Pickering and his team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., at last touched lunar dirt. The Rangers photographed the terrain of the Sea of Tranquillity, Sea of Clouds and Crater Alphonsus, before their planned collisions with the surface dug little craters of their own. Pickering became a hero and JPL lived to fly again — to destinations far more distant than the moon.