The Pioneer 11 spacecraft revealed the gas giants in unprecedented detail. It carries a golden plaque of greetings, and stymied scientists with the "Pioneer Anomaly." ...

Pioneer 10, the first probe to leave the solar system, carries a plaque with greetings from Earth's inhabitants. The Pioneer Anomaly baffled scientists for decades.

The Pioneer plaque. Pioneer 10 and 11 each carry a 6 x 9-inch (15 x 23 centimeters), gold-anodized aluminum plaque. The plaque is affixed to support struts close to the spacecraft’s bus (main body).

A recreation of the Pioneer 10 Plaque. Duane King. In March of 1972, NASA launched the Pioneer 10 spacecraft to study Jupiter and go further than any human-made object has gone before. Attached to ...

Pioneer 11 is just one of five spacecraft currently on a trajectory that will take it out of the solar system. And in some 4 million years, this robotic emissary from Earth, which sent its final ...

[NASA's Pioneer Spacecraft: A Solar System Legacy ... "It will be the oldest artifact of mankind," said Sagan, prior to the launch of the original Pioneer plaque in March 1972.

After more than 30 years, it appears the venerable Pioneer 10 spacecraft has sent its last signal to Earth. Pioneer's last, very weak signal was received on Jan. 22, 2003.

As a reminder that Pioneer 11 is venturing out on its own, its NASA Solar System Exploration page's elapsed time is frozen at 22 years, 7 months, 17 days, 21 hours, 49 minutes -- the last time ...

Pioneer 10 achieved the first flyby of Mars, the first trip through the asteroid belt, and the first flyby of Jupiter. And the secret to its success was nuclear power. No NASA spacecraft had ever ...

Before the early 1970s, NASA’s planetary science missions stuck close to the metaphorical coastline, sending robotic spacecraft to the Moon, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. It would be the twin ...