Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Ranger program began in 1959 as a series of uncrewed space missions by the United States. Its goal was to obtain the first close-up images of the lunar surface through direct impact.
Harris Schurmeier took over as project manager for the Ranger program after James D. Burke served as the Ranger program manager for the first five spacecraft. Congress launched an investigation into management problems at NASA Headquarters and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory following these early failures.
Ranger seven launched on the 28th of July 1964 and impacted the Moon on the 31st of July 1964 at 13:25:49 UT. It targeted Mare Cognitum south of the crater Copernicus.
Ranger eight took more than 7,000 images covering a wider area while sweeping an oblique course over Oceanus Procellarum. The probe crashed in Mare Tranquillitatis on the 20th of February 1965.
The total research, development, launch, and support costs for Rangers one through nine reached approximately $170 million. This figure includes all expenditures from the initial launches to the final successful impacts.