NASA Programs
Pioneer Program
Early lunar and planetary probes—and the first spacecraft to leave the solar system.
Pioneer was a long-running family of NASA probes. Early Pioneers attempted lunar and solar-orbit missions in the late 1950s and 1960s. Pioneer 6 through 9 studied the Sun from heliocentric orbits. Pioneer 10 and 11 became the first spacecraft to fly past Jupiter (and Pioneer 11 past Saturn), then continued outbound on escape trajectories.
Each of Pioneer 10 and 11 carried a gold-anodized plaque with a diagram of humans and Earth’s location—humanity’s first deliberate interstellar message on a spacecraft. Pioneer Venus later mapped Earth’s sister planet from orbit and with atmospheric probes in 1978.
Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and the first to leave the solar system on a hyperbolic path. Contact was eventually lost as the aging transmitters fell silent at enormous distances.
Milestones
- 1972-03-03Pioneer 10 launch — Begins the first mission through the asteroid belt to Jupiter and beyond.
- 1973-12-03Jupiter flyby — Pioneer 10 becomes the first spacecraft to fly past Jupiter.
- 1979-09-01Pioneer 11 at Saturn — First spacecraft encounter with Saturn.
Summary original to flyARIA.com. Photograph: NASA. NASA images are generally not protected by copyright in the United States; credit does not imply endorsement.