NASA sent two wooden capsules to the Moon in 1962, but they missed and may still be orbiting the Sun today

NASA’s Ranger 3 and Ranger 5 carried seismometer capsules inside 65-centimetre balsa-wood spheres meant to survive a Moon impact. Both missed the Moon in 1962 and entered solar orbit. The missions reveal an unusual piece of early space race engineering, and show how failed spacecraft can still return useful scientific data.