Pioneer 11

Pioneer 11
An artist's impression of Pioneer 11 on its way to interstellar space.
Mission typePlanetary / Heliosphere exploration
OperatorNASA / Ames
COSPAR ID1973-019A Edit this at Wikidata
SATCAT no.6421
Websitescience.nasa.gov
Mission duration22 years, 7 months and 19 days
Spacecraft properties
ManufacturerTRW
Launch mass258.5 kg[1]
Power155 watts (at launch)
Start of mission
Launch dateApril 6, 1973, 02:11:00 (1973-04-06UTC02:11Z) UTC[1]
RocketAtlas SLV-3D Centaur-D1A Star-37E
Launch siteCape Canaveral LC-36B
End of mission
DisposalDecommissioned
Last contactNovember 24, 1995 (1995-11-25)
Flyby of Jupiter
Closest approachDecember 3, 1974
Distance43,000 kilometers (27,000 miles)
Flyby of Saturn
Closest approachSeptember 1, 1979
Distance21,000 kilometers (13,000 miles)

Pioneer 11 (also known as Pioneer G) is a NASA robotic space probe launched on April 5, 1973, to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, the solar wind, and cosmic rays.[2] It was the first probe to encounter Saturn, the second to fly through the asteroid belt, and the second to fly by Jupiter. Later, Pioneer 11 became the second of five artificial objects to achieve an escape velocity allowing it to leave the Solar System. Due to power constraints and the vast distance to the probe, the last routine contact with the spacecraft was on September 30, 1995, and the last good engineering data was received on November 24, 1995.[3]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference nasa1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Fimmel, Swindell & Burgess 1974, p. 19.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Status was invoked but never defined (see the help page).