📡 Pioneer 10 & Pioneer 11
Humanity’s first probes to journey beyond Mars and cross the asteroid belt — opening the path to the outer planets and interstellar space.
Mission Overview
The Pioneer missions, launched in the early 1970s, were the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and make direct encounters with the outer planets. Pioneer 10 flew past Jupiter, while Pioneer 11 continued onward to Saturn — becoming humanity’s first emissaries toward interstellar space.
“This spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations.” — Carl Sagan
Key Mission Milestones
- 🚀 1972 — Pioneer 10 launch
- 🚀 1973 — Pioneer 11 launch
- 🪐 1973 — Pioneer 10 flies past Jupiter (first ever)
- 🛰 1974 — Pioneer 11 flies past Jupiter
- 💫 1979 — Pioneer 11 flyby of Saturn
- 📡 2003 — Last signal received from Pioneer 10
- 🔕 1995 — Last communication attempt with Pioneer 11
The Pioneer Plaque
Both spacecraft carry a message for any intelligent life that may one day encounter them. The Pioneer Plaque, designed by Carl Sagan and Linda Salzman Sagan, shows:
- 👥 Figures of a human male and female
- 📍 Location of Earth relative to pulsars
- 🪐 A diagram of the Solar System
- 📏 Scale reference using hydrogen wavelength
It is humanity’s first physical message sent beyond the Solar System.
Major Discoveries
- 🪨 First spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt safely.
- 🌪 First close-up observations of Jupiter’s radiation belts and atmosphere.
- 🛰 Precise measurements of magnetic fields and solar wind in deep space.
- 🪐 Pioneer 11 provided the first detailed data on Saturn’s rings and moons.