March 2, 1972 is the day of Pioneer 10 Launch
Pioneer 10 is a 258-kilogram robotic space probe that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter and became the first spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System.
Pioneer 10 was launched on March 2, 1972 by an Atlas-Centaur expendable vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Between July 15, 1972, and February 15, 1973, it became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt. Imaging of Jupiter began November 6, 1973, at a range of 25 million km, and a total of more than 500 images were transmitted. The closest approach to the planet was on December 4, 1973, at a range of 132,252 km. During the mission, the on-board instruments were used to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter, solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the solar system and heliosphere.
Communication was lost on January 23, 2003, due to power constraints, with the probe at a distance of 12 billion kilometers (80 AU) from Earth.
The Lewis Team
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| Artist Imagination of Pioneer in Space |
Pioneer 10 was launched on March 2, 1972 by an Atlas-Centaur expendable vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Between July 15, 1972, and February 15, 1973, it became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt. Imaging of Jupiter began November 6, 1973, at a range of 25 million km, and a total of more than 500 images were transmitted. The closest approach to the planet was on December 4, 1973, at a range of 132,252 km. During the mission, the on-board instruments were used to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter, solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the solar system and heliosphere.
Communication was lost on January 23, 2003, due to power constraints, with the probe at a distance of 12 billion kilometers (80 AU) from Earth.
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| Pioneer 10 in the final stages of construction |
The Lewis Team
The Lewis launch team was led by Center Director Bruce T. Lundin who gave the final call of "Go Atlas! Go Centaur!" prior to the final countdown. Edmund Jonash was the Chief of the Launch Vehicles Division, Daniel J. Shramo was the Atlas-Centaur Project Manager, and Edwin Muckley was the Centaur Project Engineer.
The Launch Vehicle
The Atlas vehicle had a total thrust of 411,353 pounds, consisting of two 174,841-pound-thrust booster engines; one 60,317-pound thrust sustainer engine, and two vernier engines, each developing 676 pounds thrust. Propellants were liquid oxygen and RP1.
The Centaur second stage had two engines with a total thrust of 29,200 pounds. This stage carried insulation panels which were jettisoned just before the vehicle left the Earth's atmosphere and were used to prevent heat or air friction from causing boil-off of liquid hydrogen on the pad and during the flight through the atmosphere. The propellants were liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. For the Pioneer missions, a solid-fueled TE364-4 third stage developed approximately 15,000 pounds of thrust. This stage also spun the spacecraft up to 60 rpm.
Pioneer 11
NASA Lewis also launched Pioneer 11 on April 5, 1973, like Pioneer 10, on top of an Atlas/Centaur/TE364-4 launch vehicle. During its flyby of Jupiter on 2 December 1974, Pioneer 11 obtained dramatic images of the Great Red Spot, made the first observation of the immense polar regions, and determined the mass of Jupiter's moon, Callisto. Looping high above the ecliptic plane and across the Solar System, Pioneer 11 raced toward its appointment with Saturn on 1 September 1979. Pioneer 11 flew to within 13,000 miles of Saturn and took the first close-up pictures of the planet. Following its encounter with Saturn, Pioneer 11 explored the outer regions of our Solar system, studying energetic particles from our Sun (Solar Wind), and cosmic rays entering our portion of the Milky Way. In September 1995, Pioneer 11 was at a distance of 6.5 billion km (4 billion miles) from Earth. However, by September 1995, its power source nearly exhausted, Pioneer 11 could no longer make any scientific observations, and routine mission operations were terminated. There have been no communications with Pioneer 11 since November 1995.
Source :NASA and Wiki
Source :NASA and Wiki