"a few weeks every 13 months. Launch during other time intervals would have been more costly in terms of propellant requirements. Approved by NASA in February 1969, the twin spacecraft were designated Pioneer F and Pioneer G before launch; later they were named ""Pioneer 10"" and ""Pioneer 11"". They formed part of the Pioneer program, a series of United States unmanned space missions launched between 1958 and 1978. This model was the first in the series to be designed for exploring the outer Solar System. Based on multiple proposals issued throughout the 1960s, the early mission objectives were to explore"
"Pioneer 11 Pioneer 11 (also known as Pioneer G) is a robotic space probe launched by NASA on April 6, 1973 to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, solar wind and cosmic rays. It was the first probe to encounter Saturn and the second to fly through the asteroid belt and by Jupiter. Thereafter, ""Pioneer 11"" became the second of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity that will allow them to leave the Solar System. Due to power constraints and the vast distance to the probe, the last routine contact with the spacecraft was"
"Pioneer 10 Pioneer 10 (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing , that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, ""Pioneer 10"" became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity that will allow them to leave the Solar System. This space exploration project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California, and the space probe was manufactured by TRW Inc. ""Pioneer 10"" was assembled around a hexagonal bus with a diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna, and the spacecraft was spin stabilized around the axis of"
"December 9, 1978. All four probes transmitted data throughout their descent to the surface. One probe survived landing and transmitted data from the surface for over an hour. The Pioneer mission consisted of two components, launched separately: an orbiter and a multiprobe. The orbiter was launched on 20 May 1978 with an Atlas-Centaur rocket. The orbiter's mass was . The Pioneer Venus Orbiter was inserted into an elliptical orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978. It carried 17 experiments (with a total mass of 45 kg): In May 1992 the orbiter began the final phase of its mission, in which"
"Pioneer program The Pioneer program was a series of United States unmanned space missions that were designed for planetary exploration. There were a number of such missions in the program, but the most notable were Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, which explored the outer planets and left the solar system. Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 carry a golden plaque, depicting a man and a woman and information about the origin and the creators of the probes, should any extraterrestrials find them someday. Credit for naming the first probe has been attributed to Stephen A. Saliga, who had been assigned to"
"Pioneer Venus Orbiter The Pioneer Venus Orbiter, also known as Pioneer Venus 1 or Pioneer 12, was a mission to Venus conducted by the United States as part of the Pioneer Venus project. Launched in May 1978 atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket, the spacecraft was inserted into an elliptical orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978. It returned data on Venus until October 1992. The Pioneer Venus Orbiter was launched by an Atlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1AR rocket, which flew from Launch Complex 36A at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch occurred at 13:13:00 on May 20, 1978, and deployed the"
"programs. Space Technology Laboratories (STL), then a division of Ramo-Wooldridge Corp., designed and produced the identical payloads for Pioneer 0, 1 and 2. These were intended to orbit and photograph the Moon, but launch vehicle problems prevented this. NASA launched Pioneer 1 as its first spacecraft on October 11, 1958. It set a distance record from Earth, and provided data on the extent of Earth's radiation belts. Pioneer 10 and 11 were nearly identical spacecraft, designed and fabricated by TRW Systems Group. They were optimized for ruggedness since they were the first man-made objects to pass through the asteroid belt"
"science instruments again functioning. November 8, 1968 Launched at 09:46:00 UTC from Cape Canaveral into solar orbit with a mean distance of 0.8 AU. 1983 Final contact. 1987 Contact was attempted, but failed. August 27, 1969 Launched at 21:59:00 UTC from Cape Canaveral. The launch vehicle was destroyed by range safety after hydraulics in the first stage failed. Pioneer 6, 7, 8, and 9 Pioneer 6, 7, 8, and 9 were space probes in the Pioneer program. They were a series of solar-orbiting, spin-stabilized, solar-cell and battery-powered satellites designed to obtain measurements on a continuing basis of interplanetary phenomena from"
"Pioneer Venus Multiprobe The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe, also known as Pioneer Venus 2 or Pioneer 13 was a spacecraft launched in 1978 to explore Venus as part of NASA's Pioneer program. This part of the mission included a spacecraft Bus which was launched from Earth carrying one large and three smaller probes, which after separating penetrated the Venusian atmosphere at a different location, returning data as they descended into the planet's thick atmosphere. The entry occurred on December 9, 1978. There was also an orbiter launched this year, part of the overall Pioneer Venus project along with this entry probe"
"plaque, depicting a man and a woman and information about the origin and the creators of the probes, should any extraterrestrials find them someday. Additionally, the Pioneer mission to Venus consisted of two components, launched separately. Pioneer Venus 1 or Pioneer Venus Orbiter was launched in May 1978 and remained in orbit until 1992. Pioneer Venus 2 or Pioneer Venus Multiprobe, launched in August 1978, sent four small probes into the Venusian atmosphere. Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each spacecraft was a metalized balloon satellite to be inflated in space and acting as a passive reflector"
"from Earth due to its proximity to the sun during February 1986. UV spectrometer observations monitored the loss of water from the comet's nucleus at perihelion on February 9. Pioneer Venus Orbiter The Pioneer Venus Orbiter, also known as Pioneer Venus 1 or Pioneer 12, was a mission to Venus conducted by the United States as part of the Pioneer Venus project. Launched in May 1978 atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket, the spacecraft was inserted into an elliptical orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978. It returned data on Venus until October 1992. The Pioneer Venus Orbiter was launched by an"
"Pioneer Venus project The Pioneer Venus project was part of the Pioneer program consisting of two spacecraft, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe, launched to Venus in 1978. The program was managed by NASA's Ames Research Center. An official Ames documentary film titled ""Venus Pioneers"" is visible on George Van Valkenburg's YouTube Channel. The Pioneer Venus Orbiter entered orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978, and performed observations to characterize the atmosphere and surface of Venus. It continued to transmit data until October 1992. The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe deployed four small probes into the Venusian atmosphere on"
"of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. In 1991, ""Pioneer 11"" was honored on one of 10 United States Postage Service stamps commemorating unmanned spacecraft exploring each of the then nine planets and the Moon. ""Pioneer 11"" was the spacecraft featured with Jupiter. Pluto was listed as ""Not yet explored"". Pioneer 11 Pioneer 11 (also known as Pioneer G) is a robotic space probe launched by NASA on April 6, 1973 to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, solar wind and"
"reached perihelion on 18 March 1959 at 01:00 UT. The cylindrical fourth stage casing (173 cm long, 15 cm diameter, 4.65 kg) went into orbit with the probe. The communication system had worked well, and it was estimated that signals could have been received out to 680,000 miles (1 million kilometers) had there been enough battery power. Pioneer 4 Pioneer 4 was an American spin-stabilized unmanned spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first probe of the United States to escape from the Earth's gravity. It"
"antenna for telemetry and doppler information and a magnetic dipole antenna for the television system. Ground commands were received through the electric dipole antenna at 115 MHz. The spacecraft was to be spin-stabilized at 1.8 revolutions per second, the spin direction approximately perpendicular to the geomagnetic meridian planes of the trajectory. Pioneer 0 was launched on Thor missile number 127 at 12:18:00 UTC on August 17, 1958 by the United States Air Force, only 4 minutes after the scheduled launch time. It was destroyed by an explosion of the first stage of the Thor booster, 73.6 seconds after lift-off at"
"Pioneer 5 Pioneer 5 (also known as Pioneer P-2, and Thor Able 4, and nicknamed the ""Paddle-Wheel Satellite"") was a spin-stabilized space probe in the NASA Pioneer program used to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. It was launched on March 11, 1960 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17A at 13:00:00 UTC with an on-orbit dry mass of 43 kg. It was a 0.66 m diameter sphere with 1.4 m span across its four solar panels and achieved a solar orbit of 0.806 × 0.995 AU (121,000,000 by 149,000,000 km). Data was received"
"successful telemetry contact with Pioneer 6 was made on December 8, 2000 to celebrate 35 years of continuous operation since launch. Its original design life expectancy was only 6 months. Although NASA described ""Pioneer 6"" as ""extant"" , there has been no contact since December 8, 2000. At this time ""Pioneer 6"" had operated for 12,758 days, making it the oldest operating space probe until it was surpassed by ""Voyager 2"" on August 13, 2012. It is also believed that contact is still possible with ""Pioneer 7"" and ""8""; only ""Pioneer 9"" is definitely not working. December 16, 1965 Launched"
"Pioneer 0 Pioneer 0 (also known as Thor-Able 1) was a failed United States space probe that was designed to go into orbit around the Moon, carrying a television camera, a micrometeorite detector and a magnetometer, as part of the first International Geophysical Year (IGY) science payload. It was designed by the United States Air Force (USAF) as the first satellite in the Pioneer program and was one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country, but the rocket failed shortly after launch. The probe was intended to be called Pioneer (or Pioneer 1), but the launch"
"Pioneer H Pioneer H is an unlaunched unmanned space mission that was part of the US Pioneer program for a planned 1974 launch. Had this mission and spacecraft been launched, it would have been designated Pioneer 12; that designation was later applied to the Pioneer Venus Orbiter. As planning for the Pioneer 10 and 11 missions progressed, mission scientists found themselves desiring a third probe. In 1971, a formal mission study was proposed for a spacecraft to be launched to Jupiter in 1974, where it would use the gas giant as a gravitational slingshot to travel outside the ecliptic. This"
"'Pioneers' in space.'"" The earliest missions were attempts to achieve Earth's escape velocity, simply to show it was feasible and study the Moon. This included the first launch by NASA which was formed from the old NACA. These missions were carried out by the US Air Force and Army. Five years after the early Able space probe missions ended, NASA Ames Research Center used the Pioneer name for a new series of missions, initially aimed at the inner Solar System, before the bold flyby missions to Jupiter and Saturn. While successful, the missions returned much poorer images than the Voyager"
"bus made measurements only to about 110 km altitude before burning up. Pioneer Venus project The Pioneer Venus project was part of the Pioneer program consisting of two spacecraft, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe, launched to Venus in 1978. The program was managed by NASA's Ames Research Center. An official Ames documentary film titled ""Venus Pioneers"" is visible on George Van Valkenburg's YouTube Channel. The Pioneer Venus Orbiter entered orbit around Venus on December 4, 1978, and performed observations to characterize the atmosphere and surface of Venus. It continued to transmit data until October 1992. The"
"and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. The plaque is attached to the antenna support struts to provide some shielding from interstellar dust. In the film """", a Klingon ship destroys ""Pioneer 10"" as target practice. In the internet multimedia fiction project ""17776"", a sentient ""Pioneer 10"" is one of the main characters. Pioneer 10 Pioneer 10 (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing , that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, ""Pioneer 10"" became the first of five"
"Pioneer Aerospace Corporation Pioneer Aerospace Corporation is one of the world's largest aerodynamic deceleration manufacturers. Pioneer has designed and manufactured parachutes and parafoils for numerous NASA missions. Pioneer Aerospace Corporation began production in 1938. In 1988, Pioneer become a part of Zodiac's Aerosafety Systems Group. Pioneer's main factory and distribution centers are located in Columbia, Mississippi and South Windsor, Connecticut. The company is one of the largest aerodynamic deceleration manufacturers in the world. Pioneer Aerospace Corporation has designed and manufactured recovery systems for numerous NASA missions, including: the Galileo probe, the Space Shuttle, the Mars Pathfinder missions, the Genesis solar-sample"
"Lovell Telescope (then called Manchester Mark I), a 26-meter radio telescope in Hawaii, and a small helical array in Singapore. Pioneer 5 Pioneer 5 (also known as Pioneer P-2, and Thor Able 4, and nicknamed the ""Paddle-Wheel Satellite"") was a spin-stabilized space probe in the NASA Pioneer program used to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. It was launched on March 11, 1960 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17A at 13:00:00 UTC with an on-orbit dry mass of 43 kg. It was a 0.66 m diameter sphere with 1.4 m span across its"
"was the first Out-Of-The-Ecliptic mission (OOE) proposed, for Jupiter and solar (Sun) observations. NASA/Ames Research Center would have managed the project. The NASA contractor TRW Systems Group (formerly Space Technology Laboratories) would have constructed Pioneer H from the flight-qualified spare components intended for the Pioneer F and G probes (designated Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 after launch). NASA management did not approve the mission proposal, and it was never launched in 1974. In 1976 NASA transferred the craft (without RTG) to the Smithsonian Institution. In January 1977, Pioneer H was moved to the National Air and Space Museum, where it"
"of . NASA's Pioneer 11 space probe, launched in April 1973, exited the solar system in 1990 and continued in the direction of Lambda Aquilae. It is estimated that it will take around 4 million years for the probe to make its closest approach to its destination, assuming it will remain intact. However, NASA stopped communicating with Pioneer 11 since November 1995 because the space probe's power was already too weak to transmit any data. In Chinese, (), meaning ""Market Officer"", refers to an asterism consisting of λ Aquilae, α Scuti, δ Scuti, ε Scuti, β Scuti, η Scuti, 12"
"mission, the Stardust Comet Intercept Probe, and the Mars Exploration Rovers. In 1999, Pioneer manufactured, at the time, the world's largest parafoil (7,500 square ft.) for the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle, an emergency return capsule for the crew of the International Space Station. Pioneer Aerospace Corporation Pioneer Aerospace Corporation is one of the world's largest aerodynamic deceleration manufacturers. Pioneer has designed and manufactured parachutes and parafoils for numerous NASA missions. Pioneer Aerospace Corporation began production in 1938. In 1988, Pioneer become a part of Zodiac's Aerosafety Systems Group. Pioneer's main factory and distribution centers are located in Columbia, Mississippi and"
"Voyager 1 Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977. Part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System, ""Voyager 1"" launched 16 days after its twin, ""Voyager 2"". Having operated for as of , the spacecraft still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return data. At a distance of (21.289 billion kilometers; 13.229 billion miles) from the Sun as of June 4, 2018, it is the most distant man-made object from Earth. The probe's objectives included flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan. While the"
"not escape Earth orbit, but transmitted data for some 40 hours before reentering the atmosphere. A malfunction in a propellant depletion circuit was found to be the cause of the failure, although the exact nature of it could not be determined. The circuit was redesigned afterwards. Pioneer 4 launched successfully on March 3, 1959, making for the only first-generation US lunar probe to accomplish all of its mission goals, as well as the sole successful US lunar probe until 1964. After Pioneer 4, NASA shifted their lunar efforts to the bigger Atlas-Able booster and decided instead to utilize the Juno"
"the periapsis was held between 150 and 250 km until the fuel ran out and atmospheric entry destroyed the spacecraft in August 1992. The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe was launched on August 8, 1978 on an Atlas-Centaur rocket. It consisted of a 290 kg bus which carried one large (315 kg) and three small atmospheric probes. The large probe was released on November 16, 1978 and the three small probes on November 20. All four probes entered the Venus atmosphere on December 9, followed by the bus. The Pioneer Venus large probe was about 1.5 m in diameter and equipped with"
"on September 30, 1995, and the last good engineering data was received on November 24, 1995. Approved in February 1969, ""Pioneer 11"" and its twin probe, ""Pioneer 10"", were the first to be designed for exploring the outer Solar System. Yielding to multiple proposals throughout the 1960s, early mission objectives were defined as: Subsequent planning for an encounter with Saturn added many more goals: ""Pioneer 11"" was built by TRW and managed as part of the Pioneer program by NASA Ames Research Center. A backup unit, Pioneer H, is currently on display in the ""Milestones of Flight"" exhibit at the"
"Pioneer 4 Pioneer 4 was an American spin-stabilized unmanned spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first probe of the United States to escape from the Earth's gravity. It carried a payload similar to ""Pioneer 3"": a lunar radiation environment experiment using a Geiger–Müller tube detector and a lunar photography experiment. It passed within 58,983 km of the Moon's surface. However, ""Pioneer 4"" did not come close enough to trigger its photoelectric sensor. The spacecraft was still in solar orbit as of 1969. It was the"
"a leased launch pad by private company SpaceX, the Air Force launch support operations at the Cape are planning for 21 launches in 2014, a fifty percent increase over the 2013 launch rate. SpaceX has reservations for a total of ten of those launches in 2014, with an option for an eleventh. The first United States satellite launch, Explorer 1, was made by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency on February 1, 1958 (UTC) from Canaveral's LC-26A using a Juno I RS-29 missile. NASA's first launch, Pioneer 1, came on October 11 of the same year from LC-17A using a Thor-Able"