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The first spacecraft to explore Jupiter was Pioneer 10, which flew past the planet in December 1973, followed by Pioneer 11 twelve months later. Pioneer 10 obtained the first close-up images of Jupiter and its Galilean moons; the spacecraft studied the planet's atmosphere, detected its magnetic field, observed its radiation belts and determined ...
The spacecraft recorded important heliophysics data in early August 1972 by registering a solar shock wave when it was at a distance of 2.2 AU (330 million km; 200 million mi). [38] On July 15, 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to enter the asteroid belt, [4] located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The project planners expected ...
NASA management designated JPL as the lead center for the Jupiter Orbiter Probe (JOP) Project. [14] John R. Casani, who had headed the Mariner and Voyager projects, became the first project manager. [15] The JOP would be the fifth spacecraft to visit Jupiter, but the first to orbit it, and the probe the first to enter its atmosphere. [16]
First flyby of Jupiter. First spacecraft beyond the Inner Solar System. USA (NASA) Pioneer 10 [33] January 1974 First spacecraft to return data on a long-period comet. USA (NASA) Mariner 10 [34] 5 February 1974: First mission to explore two planets in a single mission (Mercury and Venus). First photograph of Venus from space.
The spacecraft was expected to last for at least five years—long enough to reach Jupiter and perform its mission. [14] Launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-34, carrying Galileo into Earth orbit. On December 19, 1985, it departed the JPL in Pasadena, California, on the first leg of its journey, a road trip to the Kennedy Space Center in ...
The U.S. space agency's robotic solar-powered Europa Clipper spacecraft will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, carrying nine scientific ...
The Europa Clipper launched Monday aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket propelling it on a six-year journey to reach its namesake icy ocean world. Spacecraft Europa Clipper traveling to Jupiter's ...
The first successful flyby of Mars was made by Mariner 4 in 1965. Mariner 10 first passed Mercury in 1974. The first probe to explore the outer planets was Pioneer 10, which flew by Jupiter in 1973. Pioneer 11 was the first to visit Saturn, in 1979.