Pioneer

The Pioneer series of spacecraft performed first-of-their-kind explorations of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus. The different missions had little in common except that they all paved the way for later in-depth investigations, and were all spin stabilized.

Pioneer 0, 1, and 2 were the United States' first lunar attempts. These identical spacecraft, which all failed to meet their lunar objectives, were followed by Pioneer 3 and 4, which succeeded in becoming America's first successful lunar missions. Pioneer 5 provided the first maps of the interplanetary magnetic field. Pioneers 6,7,8, and 9 were the world's first solar monitoring network and provided warnings of increased solar activity which could affect Earth orbiting satellites and ground systems. The twin Pioneer 10 and 11 vehicles were the first spacecraft to ever visit Jupiter and Saturn. The craft performed a wide variety of scientific observations of the two planets and returned environmental data that was used during the design of the more sophisticated Voyager probes. The Pioneer Venus mission, consisting of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter (Pioneer 12) and Pioneer Venus Multiprobe (Pioneer 13), was the United States' first long-term mission to observe Venus and studied the structure and composition of the Venusian atmosphere. The mission also provided the first radar map of the planet's surface.

Related QuickLook Pages:

• Pioneer 0, 1, 2
• Pioneer 10, 11
• Pioneer 3, 4
• Pioneer 5
• Pioneer 6, 7, 8, 9, E
• Pioneer 12
• Pioneer 13

Launch Facts

Name	Int'l Desig.	Date	Site	Vehicle	Orbit	Mass(kg)
Notes
Pioneer 0 (Thor Able 1)		8/17/58	ESMC	Thor Able	FTO	38
1st stage malfunction; 1st US lunar attempt
Pioneer 1	1958-[Eta]1	10/11/58	ESMC	Thor Able	HEO	38
Set distance record; failed to reach moon
Pioneer 2	none	11/8/58	ESMC	Thor Able	FTO	39
3rd stage ignition unsuccessful
Pioneer 3	1958-[Theta]1	12/6/58	ESMC	Juno 2	HEO	6
Failed to reach moon; provided radiation data
Pioneer 4	1959-[Nu]1	3/3/59	ESMC	Juno 2	Solar	6
Passed within 60000 km. of moon
Pioneer 5	1960-[Alpha]1	3/11/60	ESMC	Thor Able	Solar	43
Solar research
Pioneer 6	1965-105A	12/16/65	ESMC	Delta E	Solar	63
Measured solar wind, Sun's magnetic field
Pioneer 7	1966-075A	8/17/66	ESMC	Delta E	Solar	63
Monitored solar wind, cosmic rays
Pioneer 8	1967-123A	12/13/67	ESMC	Delta E	Solar	63
Solar radiation data
Pioneer 9	1968-100A	11/8/68	ESMC	Delta E	Solar	63
Solar radiation data
Pioneer E	none	8/27/69	ESMC	Delta L	FTO	67
1st stage hydraulics failure; destroyed by range safety
Pioneer 10	1972-012A	3/3/72	ESMC	Atlas Centaur	SSET	259
Jupiter flyby 12/73; 1st man-made object to leave solar system. Operations were discontinued on 3/31/97 because of power limitations. Spacecraft continues its voyage into deep space.
Pioneer 11	1973-019A	4/6/73	ESMC	Atlas Centaur	SSET	259
Jupiter flyby 12/74; Saturn flyby 9/1/79
Pioneer 12	1978-051A	5/20/78	ESMC	Atlas Centaur	Venus	582
Venus orbiter
Pioneer 13	1978-078A	8/8/78	ESMC	Atlas Centaur	Venus	904
Dropped 4 probes in Venus atmosphere 12/9/78; burned up in atmosphere on same day