PIONEER - NASA's First Aircrafts

Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, launched in 1972 and 1973, respectively, were the first spacecraft to visit the solar system's most photogenic gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn. Pioneer 10 was the first probe to travel through the solar system's asteroid belt, a field of orbiting rocks between Mars and Jupiter. Then about a year-and-a-half after its launch, the spacecraft made the first flyby of the planet Jupiter. It took stunning up-close photos of the Great Red Spot and the wide swaths of red that band the planet. About a year later, Pioneer 11 flew by Jupiter, and then moved on to Saturn, where it discovered a couple of previously unknown small moons around the planet, and a new ring. Both probes have stopped sending data, and are continuing out on their one-way voyages beyond the solar system.

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.

Below is the brief History of all PIONEER attempted to reach to space.

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