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VIRTUALISATION Let’s look back 50 years: Pioneer 4 goes to Moon
VIRTUALISATION Let’s look back 50 years: Pioneer 4 goes to Moon | Let’s look back 50 years: Pioneer 4 goes to Moon |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Monday, 02 March 2009 | |
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The Pioneer 4 probe—with naming convention: International Designator (ID) National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) 1959-013A, or ID NSSDC 1959-013A)—was launched at 17:11:00 Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was launched from Launch Complex 5 with a Juno II launch vehicle (rocket), with a 64-foot elongated Jupiter IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile) missile as its first stage, along with second, third, and fourth stages. Pioneer 4 continues, along with its fourth stage rocket, to be in a Sun-centered (heliocentric) orbit with these following orbital parameters (which define its orbit in relationship to the body (the Sun) in which it revolves about):
an orbital period of 398.0 days,
an inclination of 29.9 degrees, an eccentricity of 0.07109, an apoapsis (furthest distance from Sun) of 1.13 AU, and a periapsis (closest distance) of 0.98 AU. An AU is the abbreviation for astronomical unit, or the average distance between the Sun and the Earth. As such Pioneer 4 was the first U.S. space probe to enter a heliocentric (solar) orbit. Page two continues. |
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