Home > Back to Search Results >
Pioneer 4 becomes 1st U.S. probe...
Pioneer 4 becomes 1st U.S. probe...
Item # 562427
March 04, 1959
LEOMINSTER DAILY ENTERPRISE, Massachusetts, March 4, 1959
* Pioneer 4 becomes 1st U.S. probe
* U.S. Space Probe
This 22 page newspaper has a two column headline on the front page: "Pioneer Is Close To moon Level"
Other news of the day throughout. Light browning, otherwise in nice condition.
wikipedia notes: Pioneer 4 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first U.S. probe to escape from the Earth's gravity. It carried a payload similar to Pioneer 3: a lunar radiation environment experiment using a Geiger-Müller tube detector and a lunar photography experiment. It passed within 60,000 km of the Moon's surface. However, Pioneer 4 did not come close enough to trigger its photoelectric sensor. No lunar radiation was detected. The spacecraft was still in solar orbit as of 1969.
Category: The 20th Century
Add to Cart
