James E. Martin, the Engineer Who Captured America’s First Images of the Moon’s Surface

The Ranger 7 robotic spacecraft was a major turning point in the race to the Moon. After 13 consecutive unsuccessful attempts for the U.S. to take images of the lunar surface, on July 31, 1964, Ranger 7 sent back over 4,000 detailed images in less than 17 minutes before crashing into the Moon. It marked NASA’s first successful mission to the Moon’s surface. In honor of this success, the crash site was named Mare Cognitum, the “Sea that Has Become Known.” For the Jet Propulsion Laboratory employees responsible for the mission, this was cause for celebration—the vindication of a program that had failed on every previous attempt to reach the Moon. Equally excited were the employees of RCA’s Astro-Electronics Division who had built the spacecraft’s camera system.

One of those RCA employees was James E. Martin, a 23-year-old electronics technician who worked in the RCA Space Center in Princeton, New Jersey. Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1941, Martin had a passion for science, technology, and science fiction. Math came easily to him, and he had what relatives described as a photographic memory and an intuitive sense for electrical engineering. His mother enjoyed telling the story of returning home one day when Martin was 10 years old to find that he had taken apart the family radio. With the innards spread across the table, he explained that he was trying to find what made the voice come out.  Somehow, he got the radio back together. 

After completing high school, Martin’s love of electronics led him to DeVry Technical Institute in Chicago, Illinois, where he received an associate degree in electrical engineering. In December 1961, Martin was hired to work at RCA and moved to Hightstown, New Jersey, to take up his new position. He was the division’s only African American employee. 

Martin joined a company that already had made a name for itself in the still young space industry. After the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, RCA reorganized an ad hoc space research group into an Astro Electronic Products division of its Defense Electronics Products. This was renamed the Astro-Electronics Division and moved to the new RCA Space Center. In 1958, RCA launched the world’s first communications satellite, SCORE (Signal Communications by Orbiting Relay Equipment)–the first of many communications satellites the company would design and build over the next decades. They also developed a series of weather satellites called TIROS, with TIROS 1 launched in April 1960.

Joining RCA’s Astro-Electronics Division in the early 1960s, Martin was directly involved in developing technologies for America’s Moon program. One year after the young engineer arrived in New Jersey, President John F. Kennedy famously delivered his “We Choose to Go to the Moon” speech to an audience at Rice University, affirming the United State’s plan to send a man to the Moon by the year 1970. This gave the projects on which Martin worked at the Space Center extra significance. Martin, who knew he was working against racial prejudice, worked hard to prove himself one of the most capable engineers in the lab. RCA recognized his enthusiasm and hard work and sent him to speak at local high schools to encourage students to pursue higher education in sciences.  The Stockton Annex in East Orange, New Jersey, dedicated a page of their 1965 yearbook to Martin, their favorite guest speaker.

The work Martin did at RCA included three years helping to build 30 cameras for the Ranger program (each of the Block III Ranger spacecraft carried six televisions cameras), as well as 11 test versions. He became such an expert on the camera system that his supervisor chose him when it was time to send a representative to Washington, DC, to brief President Lyndon Johnson and members of his cabinet, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court on the camera system and photographic techniques. In his official statement upon the successful flight of Ranger 7, President. Johnson thanked the team, stating, “On behalf of a grateful Nation let me again congratulate you on this magnificent achievement. All of you today have helped further the peaceful exploration of space.”

Martin’s achievements caught the attention of Ebony magazine. In December 1964, the magazine published the article, “Moon Shot Technician,” highlighting Martin's contributions to the nation’s space program. The article captured the young engineer’s enthusiasm for space exploration, quoting him as saying, “The space age is a thrilling time in which to live… Man is delving into the unknown, and it is truly fascinating to watch the mysteries of the universe unravel right before our eyes.” The Ranger 7 photographs were essential to the planning of the Apollo missions, when just five years later the first humans landed on the Moon. 

Ranger 7 was the only space mission Martin worked on during his career, but it launched him into other projects. He left RCA and worked for IBM in their Software Support Offices. Then he moved to Johnson & Johnson, where he worked for their Management Information Center, and specialized in data processing and information services. While there, he mentored younger African American colleagues. He married and had a family, sharing his passion for science fiction with his children, including taking them to watch Star Wars movies. He also used his engineering skills to design their family home in East Windsor, New Jersey. All three of his children furthered Martin’s passion, studying math and science education, astrophysics, engineering and mathematics, carrying on the legacy of the “Moon Shot Technician.”