Pioneer 3

Pioneer 3 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft launched at 05:45:12 GMT on 6 December 1958 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency in conjunction with NASA, using a Juno II rocket. This spacecraft was intended as a lunar probe, but failed to go past the Moon and into a heliocentric orbit as planned. It did however reach an altitude of 102,360 km before falling back to Earth. The revised spacecraft objectives were to measure radiation in the outer Van Allen radiation belt using two Geiger-Müller tubes and to test the trigger mechanism for a lunar photographic experiment.

MainTimelineWikipediaGalleryBibliographyTableSearch

Wikimedia, Wikidata
former entity, space probe, Juno II, 

​

Location: KML, Cluster Map, Maps,

1958-12-06T00:00:00Z

1958-12-06T00:00:00Z

rocket launch

1958-12-07T00:00:00Z

1958-12-07T00:00:00Z

atmospheric entry

{"selectable":false,"showCurrentTime":false,"width":"100%","zoomMin":100000000000}

Frameless

Pioneer 3 dismounted

Pioneer 3

Type	Subtype	Date	Description	Notes	Source
commons	image		Pioneer 3 dismounted		Commons
commons	image		Pioneer 3		Commons