NASA · flyby contact lost
Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt and fly past Jupiter, then headed out of the Solar System.
- Launch
- 3 March 1972
- Last contact
- 23 January 2003
- Distance from Earth today
- 21.15 billion km141.4 AU · light: 19 h 36 min
- Distance from the Sun today
- 21.26 billion km142.1 AU
Live distance from Earth and chart →
Trajectory
Trajectory: JPL Horizons vectors (spacecraft -23) every 20 days, projected onto the ecliptic; compressed distance scale.
Mission timeline
- Launch from Cape Canaveral
- First-ever flyby of Jupiter
- Routine science operations end
- Last telemetry received
- Last faint signal detected
Targets: Jupiter, interstellar space
About the mission
Pioneer 10 opened the outer Solar System to exploration. Launched in 1972, it proved that a spacecraft could safely cross the asteroid belt and, in December 1973, made the first close pass of Jupiter, measuring its intense radiation belts. Jupiter's gravity then flung it onto an escape trajectory. NASA ended routine operations in 1997 and the last weak signal arrived in January 2003; the silent probe, carrying a plaque with a message for anyone who might find it, keeps drifting away from the Sun.
Sources
- science.nasa.gov/mission/pioneer-10/
- nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1972-012A
- ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND=%27-23%27&OBJ_DATA=%27YES%27&MAKE_EPHEM=%27NO%27
- science.nasa.gov/missions/pioneer/pioneer-10-sends-last-signal/
- Trajectory: JPL Horizons (public domain)