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by Randy CassinghamRandy Cassingham's Honorary Unsubscribe Recognizes the Unknown, the Forgotten and the Obscure People who Had an Impact on Our Lives
Pioneer 10
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The tiny spacecraft, launched by the U.S. on March 2, 1972, was at the time the fastest man-made object launched: it reached 52,150 kph (32,400 mph) on its 21-month mission to take close-up photos and magnetic field measurements of Jupiter. After that successful encounter, NASA kept in contact with the spacecraft, using it for a variety of scientific research efforts such as studying solar wind from our sun and cosmic rays from outside our solar system. On January 22, the Deep Space Network, run by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, received a telemetry signal that showed the spacecraft's power system is nearly depleted; without power to run its transmitter, they don't expect to hear from it again and declared its mission completed on February 7. Now over 12 billion km (7.5 billion miles, 82 AU, or 11.3 light hours) away, the next thing in its path is the star Aldebaran. At its present speed, it will get there in just over 2 million years.
From This is True for 23 February 2003
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