Hats Off to the Pioneer Program

[rickstine]

I realized that I have bad mouth NASA were here's one program that succeeded even if it failed, of course all success are built upon failures so I'm not really shocked and it will take two parts so be ready for the next post on this day. Also I would like to add that the STS was also a great success of it’s time, because I have not been given enough credit to the program.<br /><br />Pioneer 1<br />Launch vehicle: Thor Able<br />Launch: October 11, 1958<br />Re-entry: October 12,1958<br />Total weight:75.3 lbs.<br /><br />This was the first of the first for NASA, even though it failed to reach the moon, it returned 43 hours data before it crashed in the South Pacific.<br /><br />Pioneer 2<br />Launch vehicle: Same as Pioneer 1<br />Launch and re-entry: November 8,1958<br />Total weight:75.5 lbs.<br /><br />Pioneer 2 failed to reach orbit ,but it succeeded in returning data on the equatorial radiation field and the micrometeroids.<br /><br />Pioneer 3<br />Launch vehicle: Juno 2<br />Launch: December 6,1958 <br />Re-entry: December 7,1958<br />Total weight:12.5 lbs. <br /><br />Pioneer 3 did not reach the moon ,but it did discover a second radiation belt around the Earth.<br /><br /><br /><br />Pioneer 4<br />Launch vehicle: Juno 2<br />Launch: March 3,1959<br />Lunner encounter: March 4,1959 <br />Total weight:13.4lbs. <br /><br />It passed 37,300 miles from the moon at 4,490 mph.,but was not close enough to trigger lunar radiation sensor.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Pioneer P-3<br />Launch vehicle: Atlas Able<br />Launch and re-entry: November 26,1959<br />Total weight:13.4lbs. <br /><br />It failed to reach orbit due to launch vehicle malfunction.<br /><br /><br />Pioneer 5 (P-2)<br />Launch vehicle: Thor Able<br />Launch: March 11,1960<br />Total weight: 94.8 lbs.<br /><br />The P-2 returned important data on solar flare, solar winds and galactic cosmic rays.<br /><br /><br />Pioneer P-30<br />Launch vechicle:Atlas able-5A<br />Launch and re-entry:September 25,1960<br />Weight: 387lbs.<br /><br />The P-30 w