Pioneer 11 is about 12.4 billion kilometers (7.8 billion miles) away from the sun. Unter Beobachtung: Zwei Nasa-Techniker überwachen 1973 im Kontrollraum von "Pioneer 10" den Flug der Sonde. Pioneer 10 and 11 were the first in the Pioneer series of spacecraft to fly by a planet, specifically Jupiter (both) and Saturn (Pioneer 11). Since the probes' orbital periods differ from that of the Earth, from time to time, they face a side of the Sun that cannot be seen from Earth.

These spacecraft successfully provided simultaneous scientific measurements at widely dispersed locations in heliocentric orbit. In Depth: Pioneer 6. Their orbital periods are therefore slightly longer than Earth's. Riding atop an Atlas Centaur rocket, Pioneer Venus 2 will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., about Aug. 7 for the start of a 354-million-kilometer (220-million-mile) journey to Earth's nearest neighbor. Later, on Jan. 18, 1968, the probe, the Sun, and Earth were perfectly aligned to allow investigation of Earth’s magnetic tail in detail, a feat first performed by Pioneer 7 in 1968. After a successful launch Pioneer 4 achieved its primary objective (an Earth-Moon trajectory), returned radiation data and provided a valuable tracking exercise. The Voyagers were built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both spacecraft.

Pioneer 7 was the second in a series of solar-orbiting, spin-stabilized, solar-cell and battery-powered satellites designed to obtain measurements of interplanetary phenomena from widely separated points in space on a continuing basis. In Depth: Pioneer 7 Identical to Pioneer 6, NASA's Pioneer 7 was launched at 15:20:17 UT Aug. 17, 1966, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Further information about each individual mission is available below. The probe passed within 60,000 km of the Moon's surface (7.2 E, 5.7 S) on 4 March 1959 at 22:25 UT (5:25 p.m. EST) at a speed of 7,230 km/hr. Like their forerunners in the Pioneer series, they were also designed to make studies of the solar wind and interplanetary medium. It was put into heliocentric orbit at 1.01 × 1.125 AU with an orbital period of 402.95 days to study magnetic fields of solar origin, to measure various characteristics of the solar wind, and to distinguish between solar and galactic cosmic rays. New Horizons is about 3 billion kilometers (2 billion miles) away from the sun, on its way to Pluto. Pioneer 10/11 Project Information. NASA will launch the second of two Pioneer spacecraft to Venus next month as part of a detailed scientific study of that cloud-shrouded planet.

Their orbital periods are therefore slightly longer than Earth's. Pioneer 8 arrived at Earth’s magnetospheric bounds at 19:00 UT Dec. 15, 1967.

Since the probes' orbital periods differ from that of the Earth, from time to time, they face a side of the Sun that cannot be seen from Earth. Pioneer 6 was the first of several NASA spacecraft designed for launch at six-month intervals to study interplanetary phenomena in space in heliocentric orbits similar to that of Earth. Pioneer 7 and Pioneer 8 are in solar orbits with 1.1 AU distance to the Sun. Pioneer 7 and Pioneer 8 are in solar orbits with 1.1 AU distance to the Sun. The distance was not close enough to trigger the photoelectric sensor.

The Pioneer series of spacecraft performed first-of-their-kind explorations of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus.