Pioneer program Pioneer program The first three Able space probes were also called Thor-Able because they were launched on Thor booster rockets. ...more on Wikipedia about "Able space probes"
The Pioneer 0 (also known as Thor- Able 1) probe was designed to go into orbit around the Moon and carried a TV camera and other instruments as part of the first International Geophysical Year (IGY) science payload. It was the first attempt by the USA at a lunar mission, and the first attempted launch beyond Earth orbit by any country. On August 17 1958, the spacecraft was destroyed by an explosion of the first (Thor booster) stage 77 seconds after launch at 16 km altitude, 16 km downrange over the Atlantic. Failure was suspected to be due to a ruptured fuel or oxygen line or a faulty turbopump gearbox. Erratic telemetry signals were received from the payload and upper stages for 123 seconds after the explosion, and the upper stages were tracked to impact in the ocean. The original plan was for the spacecraft to travel for 2.6 days to the Moon at which time a TX-8-6 solid propellant motor would fire to put it into a 29,000 km lunar orbit which was to nominally last for about two weeks. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer 0"
Pioneer 1, the second and most successful of three project Able space probes and the first spacecraft launched by the newly formed NASA. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer 1"
Pioneer 10 (also called Pioneer F) was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, and was the first spacecraft to make direct observations of Jupiter. It was launched on March 2, 1972 by an Atlas-Centaur rocket. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer 10"
Pioneer 11 was the second mission to investigate Jupiter and the outer solar system and the first to explore the planet Saturn and its main rings. Pioneer 11 (also called Pioneer G), like Pioneer 10, used Jupiter's mass in a gravitational slingshot to alter its trajectory toward Saturn. It passed close to Saturn and then it followed an escape trajectory from the solar system. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer 11"
Pioneer 2 was the last of the three project Able space probes designed to probe lunar and cislunar space. Shortly after launch on 8 November 1958 , the third stage of the launch vehicle separated but failed to ignite, and Pioneer 2 did not achieve its intended lunar orbit. The spacecraft attained a maximum altitude of 1550 km (963 miles) before reentering Earth's atmosphere at 28.7 N, 1.9 E over NW Africa. A small amount of data was obtained during the short flight, including evidence that the equatorial region around Earth has higher flux and higher energy radiation than previously considered and that the micrometeorite density is higher around Earth than in space. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer 2"
Pioneer 3 was a spin stabilized spacecraft launched on 6 December 1958 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile agency in conjunction with NASA. The spacecraft was intended as a lunar probe, but failed to go past the Moon and into a heliocentric orbit as planned, but did reach an altitude of 107,400 km before falling back to Earth. The revised spacecraft objectives were to measure radiation in the outer Van Allen radiation belt using 2 Geiger-Mueller tubes and to test the trigger mechanism for a lunar photographic experiment. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer 3"
Pioneer 4 was a spin stabilized spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer 4"
Pioneer 5 (1960 Alpha 1) was a spin-stabilized space probe in the Pioneer program used to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. It was launched on March 11 1960 13:00:00 UTC with an on-orbit dry mass of 43 kg. It is 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). Pioneer 5 was the only completely successful probe in the Pioneer/Able missions, the rest of which attempted to rendevouz with the Moon. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer 5"
Pioneer 6, 7, 8 and 9 were space probes in the Pioneer program. Together, they formed 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 widely separated points in space. They were also known as Pioneer A, B, C and D. A fifth (Pioneer E) was lost in a launch accident. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer 6, 7, 8 and 9"
The Pioneer anomaly or Pioneer effect refers to the observed deviation from expectations of the trajectories of various unmanned spacecraft visiting the outer Solar system, notably Pioneer 10 and 11. As of 2005, there is no universally accepted explanation for this phenomenon; while it is possible that the explanation will be prosaic—such as thrust from gas leakage—the possibility of entirely new physics is also being considered. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer anomaly"
Pioneer H is an unlaunched unmanned space mission that was part of the US Pioneer program. Had it been launched, it would have been designated Pioneer 12; that designation was later applied to the Pioneer Venus Orbiter. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer H"
Pioneer P-1 was a failed mission in the Pioneer series. The spacecraft was a 1 meter diameter sphere, with a propulsion module. It was launched on 24 September 1959 on an Atlas-C launcher. It was part of the Able space probes. It was to carry a TV camera and a magnetic field sensor. It was to be spin stabilized, and was known as a 'paddlewheel' spacecraft. Pioneer P-1 was destroyed in an explosion on the pad at Cape Canaveral during a static test. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer P-1"
Pioneer P-3 (also known as Atlas- Able 4 or Pioneer X) was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering spacecraft from Earth. It was equipped to take images of the lunar surface with a television-like system, estimate the Moon's mass and topography of the poles, record the distribution and velocity of micrometeorites, and study radiation, magnetic fields, and low frequency electromagnetic waves in space. A mid-course propulsion system and injection rocket would have been the first U.S. self-contained propulsion system capable of operation many months after launch at great distances from Earth and the first U.S. tests of maneuvering a satellite in space. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer P-3" There's a bit of shortopedia in all of us.
Pioneer P-30 (also known as Atlas- Able 5A, or Pioneer Y) was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering spacecraft from Earth. It was equipped to estimate the Moon's mass and topography of the poles, record the distribution and velocity of micrometeorites, and study radiation, magnetic fields, and low frequency electromagnetic waves in space. A mid-course propulsion system and injection rocket would have been the first U.S. self-contained propulsion system capable of operation many months after launch at great distances from Earth and the first U.S. tests of maneuvering a satellite in space. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer P-30"
Pioneer P-31 (also known as Atlas- Able 5B or Pioneer Z) was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering spacecraft from Earth. It was equipped to take images of the lunar surface with a television-like system, estimate the Moon's mass and topography of the poles, record the distribution and velocity of micrometeorites, and study radiation, magnetic fields, and low frequency electromagnetic waves in space. A mid-course propulsion system and injection rocket would have been the first U.S. self-contained propulsion system capable of operation many months after launch at great distances from Earth and the first U.S. tests of maneuvering a satellite in space. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer P-31"
On board the unmanned spacecraft Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 is a plaque with a pictorial message from mankind. The plaque shows the figures of a man and a woman along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. It serves as a kind of interstellar " message in a bottle". However, it is very unlikely that it will ever be found. The mean time for the spacecraft to come within 30 astronomical units of a star is longer than the current age of the galaxy. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer plaque"
The US Pioneer program of unmanned space missions was 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. Both carry a golden plaque (see Pioneer plaque), depicting a man and a woman and information about the origin and the creators of the probes, should any extraterrestrials find them someday. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer program"
The Pioneer mission to Venus consisted of two components, launched separately. Pioneer Venus 1, Pioneer Venus Orbiter was launched in 1978 and studied the planet for more than a decade after orbital insertion in 1978. Pioneer Venus 2, Pioneer Venus Multiprobe sent four small probes into the Venusian atmosphere. ...more on Wikipedia about "Pioneer Venus project"
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