Mar 2 2002
From The Space Library
Scientists with NASA’s JPL made contact with Pioneer 10, the first object made by humans to leave the solar system. NASA scientists had last made contact with the space probe on 9 July 2001 but had lost contact with Pioneer 10 from August 2000 to April 2001. Pioneer 10, launched on 2 March 1972, had been the first spacecraft to pass through an asteroid belt, the first to make direct observations of Jupiter, and in 1983, became the first object made by humans to leave the solar system. After Pioneer 10’s mission had ended on 31 March 1997, scientists with JPL’s Deep Space Network had continued to track the spacecraft’s signal as part of a study of communications technology. In addition, NASA had used the probe for training flight controllers in the acquisition of radio signals from space. (NASA, “An Early NASA Pioneer Still on the Job in Deep Space,” news release 02-44, 4 March 2002.)
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