The American 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.
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Pioneer 0 - Lunar orbiter, destroyed in launcher failure (Able 1)
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Pioneer 1 - Lunar orbiter, missed Moon due to launcher failure (Able 2)
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Pioneer 2 - Lunar orbiter, destroyed in launcher failure (Able 3)
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Pioneer 3 - Lunar flyby, missed Moon due to launcher failure
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Pioneer 4 - Lunar flyby, achieved Earth escape velocity
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Pioneer X - Lunar probe, lost in launcher failure
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Pioneer Y - Lunar probe, failed to achieve lunar obit
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Pioneer Z - Lunar probe, lost in upper stage failure
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Pioneer 5 - interplanetary space between Earth and Venus
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Pioneer 6, 7, 8 and 9 - interplanetary space "weather network"
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Pioneer A - interplanetary space "weather network"
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Pioneer B - interplanetary space "weather network"
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Pioneer C - interplanetary space "weather network"
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Pioneer D - interplanetary space "weather network"
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Pioneer E - interplanetary space "weather network", lost in launcher failure
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Pioneer 10 - Jupiter, interstellar space
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Pioneer 11 - Jupiter, Saturn, interstellar space
- Pioneer H - identical to Pioneers 10 and 11 (F & G)
- Pioneer Venus 1 - the Pioneer Venus Orbiter of the Pioneer Venus project (Pioneer 12)
- Pioneer Venus 2 - the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe of the Pioneer Venus project (Pioneer 13)
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Pioneer Venus Probe 1 - part of the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe
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Pioneer Venus Probe 2 - part of the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe
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Pioneer Venus Probe 3 - part of the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe
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Pioneer Venus Probe 4 - part of the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe
See also: Timeline of Planetary Exploration, Able space probes
External links:
Last updated: 08-28-2005 12:28:15
Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13