Free to follow every thread. No paywall, no dead ends.
Derelict space probes | HearLore
— Curated category —
Derelict space probes
Phobos programThe Soviet Union launched the first Phobos probe on the 7th of July 1988. A second probe followed five days later on the 12th of July 1988.
Venera 1Venera 1 stood as a cylindrical body topped by a dome, reaching a total height of 2.3 meters. Engineers pressurized the interior to 105 kilopascals using dry…
Mariner 4The Mariner 4 spacecraft consisted of an octagonal magnesium frame, four feet across a diagonal and three feet high. Four solar panels were attached to the…
Pioneer 11February 1969 marked the approval of Pioneer 11 and its twin probe, Pioneer 10. These spacecraft were the first designed to explore the outer Solar System.
Dawn (spacecraft)Harold R. Kaufman built the first working ion thruster in 1959 at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio. This early engine used mercury as its propellant and…
Pioneer 10In the 1960s, American aerospace engineer Gary Flandro of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory conceived a mission known as the Planetary Grand Tour.
NEAR ShoemakerJohns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory built the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft in the mid-1990s. This robotic probe was designed to study asteroid…
Stardust (spacecraft)Scientists began seeking a dedicated mission to study a comet during the 1980s. Several missions to Comet Halley became the first successful missions to…
Mariner 10NASA launched Mariner 10 on the 3rd of November 1973 from Cape Canaveral. Boeing finished building the spacecraft at the end of June 1973 in Seattle before…
Mariner 2The United States and the Soviet Union raced to dominate space during the Cold War. Both superpowers launched ambitious programs to prove military…
Deep Impact (spacecraft)A comet-impact mission first appeared on NASA's desk in 1996. Engineers at the agency were skeptical that a probe could hit such a moving target.
International Cometary ExplorerOn the 12th of August 1978, the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 satellite lifted off into a heliocentric orbit. This launch marked the beginning of a…
Pioneer 6, 7, 8, and 9The Pioneer 6 probe launched on the 16th of December 1965 from Cape Canaveral. It was part of a series designed to measure solar wind and magnetic fields.