Pioneer Missions 0, 1, and 2 were the United States' first lunar attempts. These identical spacecraft, which all failed to meet their lunar objectives, were followed by 3 and 4, which succeeded in becoming America's first successful lunar missions. Pioneer 5 provided the first maps of the interplanetary magnetic field. Pioneers 6,7,8, and 9 were the world's first solar monitoring network and provided warnings of increased solar activity which could affect Earth orbiting satellites and ground systems. The twin Pioneer Missions 10 and 11 vehicles were the first spacecraft to ever visit Jupiter and Saturn. The craft performed a wide variety of scientific observations of the two planets and returned environmental data that was used during the design of the more sophisticated Voyager probes. The Venus Pioneer mission, consisting of the Venus Orbiter (Pioneer 12) and Venus Multiprobe (Pioneer 13), was the United States' first long-term mission to observe Venus and studied the structure and composition of the Venusian atmosphere. The mission also provided the first radar map of the planet's surface.
Pioneer 0, 1, 2
Pioneers 0, 1 and 2 were the first U.S. spacecraft to attempt to leave Earth orbit. Propelled by the U.S.'s desire to beat the Soviet Union to the moon, each of the three vehicles was designed to go into orbit around the Moon and photograph the Moon's surface. None of the vehicles accomplished its intended mission, although some useful data was returned. The first vehicle, Pioneer 0, was launched by the USAF and was destroyed 77 seconds after launch when the rocket's first stage exploded. Following this attempt, 1 and 2 were turned over to United States' newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Pioneer 1 was the first spacecraft launched by NASA. A programming error in the launch vehicle upper stage resulted in Pioneer 1 being given insufficient velocity to escape the Earth's gravitational field. Although lunar orbit was not achieved, it did reach an altitude of 113,854 km above Earth and provided data on the extent of the Earth's radiation belts. The vehicle reentered over the Pacific Ocean 2 days later. Pioneer 2 also suffered a launch vehicle failure and reentered the Earth's atmosphere 6 hours and 52 minutes after launch (it did not return any significant data).
Spacecraft
Paint pattern for thermal control of multi-instrument payload. Spin stabilized. Retro-rocket for lunar orbit insertion.
Payload
TV camera. Magnetometer. Micrometeroid impact detector. Radiation detector.
Pioneer 3, 4
Following the unsuccessful USAF/NASA Pioneer Missions 0, 1, and 2 lunar missions, the U.S. Army and NASA launched 2 more lunar missions. Smaller than the previous Pioneers, Pioneer 3 and 4 each carried only a single experiment to detect cosmic radiation. Both vehicles were planned to flyby the moon and return data about the Earth and Moon's radiation environment. The launch of Pioneer 3 failed when the launch vehicle first's stage cut-off prematurely. Although Pioneer 3 did not achieve escape velocity, it reached an altitude of 102,332 km and discovered a second radiation belt around Earth. The launch of Pioneer 4 was successful, and Pioneer 4 was the first American spacecraft to escape Earth's gravitational pull as it passed within 58,983 km of the moon (about twice the planned flyby altitude). The spacecraft did return data on the Moon radiation environment, although the desire to be the first man-made vehicle to fly past the moon was lost when the Soviet Union's Luna 1 passed by the Moon several weeks before Pioneer 4.
Spacecraft
Battery powered. Passive thermal control (paint pattern on external surface). Fiberglass external structure.
Payload
2 Geiger counters. Camera trigger mechanism for planned camera system carried as test (no camera).
Pioneer 5
Pioneer 5 was designed to provide the first map of the interplanetary magnetic field. The vehicle functioned for a record 106 days, and communicated with Earth from a record distance of 36.2 million km. Spacecraft
Spin stabilized. Four deployed/fixed solar paddles providing 16 watts.