Payload
PIONEER 3
DecayedPayload
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.
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Launch
- Launch date
- December 6, 1958 at 05:44 AM UTC
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral SFS, USA
- Launched by
- Juno II →
- Operator
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Mission
- Pioneer 3
- Launch record
- View full launch →
Identity
- COSPAR (Int'l)
- 1958-008A
- NORAD catalog №
- 111
- Object type
- Payload
- Owner / operator
United States- Status
- Decayed
- Decay / reentry
- December 7, 1958
End of mission
- Last active / ended
- December 7, 1958
- Time in service
- 1 days
- Fate
- Reentered Earth's atmosphere and was destroyed.
- Final status
- Decayed