1959: Pioneer 4 (NASA)

Pioneer 4 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer programme on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first U.S. probe to escape from 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.

Creative Commons licence: Video derives from the Universal International News archive which has been placed in the public domain.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• 1959
• iaf
• space
• nasa
• pioneer

[raytek2010]

The goal was to intercept the moon not miss and quickly go out of radio range...but they have put a nice "spin" on the story!

[DonPMitchell]

Thanks for your great collection of historial space films.

[migroja]

Great video, so sofisticated by the time, 1959, incredible !!!

[hotdawg471]

sooooo coool!