18-19 November 1961: Ranger 2 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop an Atlas-Agena rocket, intended to orbit & study the Moon; Ranger 2 limped into low Earth orbit before a gyro failure in the Agena, meant to propel it toward the Moon, left it in a lower orbit than the doomed Ranger 1; telemetry was lost after a few hours & Ranger 2 burned upon atmospheric re-entry.
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