Pioneer 10 Travels Beyond Pluto (1983)
Pioneer 10 was launched on March 3, 1972, at 01:49:00 UTC by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration from Space Launch Complex 36A in Florida, aboard an Atlas-Centaur. The third…
Pioneer 11 is launched (1973)
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. It was the first probe to encounter Saturn,…
First Images of Halley’s Comet Captured
The 1986 apparition of Halley’s Comet gave scientists the opportunity to study the comet closely, and several probes were launched to do so. The Soviet Vega 1 probe began returning…