Pioneer 10 & 11

Pioneer 10

Mar 2, 1972

Pioneer 10 was launched. It was going to be first time a shuttle was going to explore Jupiter and Saturn up close.

Pioneer 10 & 11

Period: Mar 2, 1972 to Nov 1, 1995

Pioneer 10

Jul 15, 1972

Pioneer 10 entered an astroid belt. There were astroids up to the size of Alaska.

Pioneer 11

Apr 5, 1973

Pioneer 11 was launched.It will be Pioneer 10's duplicate in case of malfunction.

Pioneer 10

Dec 3, 1973

Pioneer 10 came to Jupiter and started to orbit it. It took the FIRST EVER up close pictures of Jupiter.

Pioneer 11

Apr 19, 1974

Pionner 11 safely crosses the asetroid belt. Upon entering it almost got hit by an asetroid the size of Rhode Island.

Pioneer 11

Dec 2, 1974

Pionner takes pictures of the Red Spots on Jupiter. It also determines the mass of Jupiter's moon Callisto.

Pioneer 11

Sep 11, 1979

Pioneer 11 got first close up pictures of Saturn and its rings.

Pioneer 11

Sep 1, 1995

Pioneer 11 was over 6.5 billion kilometers away from earth. It took radio waves going at the speed of LIGHT 6 hour to get to earth.

Pioneer 11

Nov 1, 1995

Pioneer 11 was exhausted from the trip. There has been no contact with the shuttle since.

Pioneer 10

Feb 1, 1996

Pioneer 10 was about 9.5 billion kilometers from earth. It took 8.5 hours for the radio signals to get to earth (at the speed of light).