The Ranger program was a series of unmanned space missions by the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar surface, returning those images until they were destroyed upon impact. A series of mishaps, however, led to the failure of the first six flights. This led to Congress launching an investigation into “problems of management” at NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 Headquarters and Jet Propulsion Laboratory.