The Pioneer program is a series of United States unmanned space missions that were designed for planetary exploration. There were a number of such missions in the program, but the most notable were Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, which explored the outer planets and left the solar system. Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 carry a golden plaque, depicting a man and a woman and information about the origin and the creators of the probes, should any extraterrestrials find them someday.

Early Able Tests

The earliest missions were attempts to achieve Earth’s escape velocity, simply to show it was feasible and study the Moon. This included the first launch by NASA which was formed from the old NACA. These missions were carried out by the US Air Force and Army.

Able Test Summary

• Pioneer 0 (Thor-Able 1, Pioneer) – Lunar orbiter, destroyed (Thor failure 77 seconds after launch) August 17, 1958
• Pioneer 1 (Thor-Able 2, Pioneer I) – Lunar orbiter, missed Moon (third stage partial failure) October 11, 1958
• Pioneer 2 (Thor-Able 3, Pioneer II) – Lunar orbiter, reentry (third stage failure) November 8, 1958
• Pioneer P-1 (Atlas-Able 4A, Pioneer W), probe lost September 24, 1959
• Pioneer P-3 (Atlas-Able 4, Atlas-Able 4B, Pioneer X) – Lunar probe, lost in launcher failure November 26, 1959
• Pioneer 5 (Pioneer P-2, Thor-Able 4, Pioneer V) – interplanetary space between Earth and Venus, launched March 11, 1960^[2]
• Pioneer P-30 (Atlas-Able 5A, Pioneer Y) – Lunar probe, failed to achieve lunar orbit September 25, 1960
• Pioneer P-31 (Atlas-Able 5B, Pioneer Z) – Lunar probe, lost in upper stage failure December 15, 1960

Declassified Documents

 Detailed Test Objectives – Project Able-3, Earth Satellite, 7 July 1959 [135 Pages, 18.7MB] – The Detailed Test Objectives and flight test plans for Project Able- 3, earth satellite vehicle for testing the Able-4 (deep space probe configuration and gathering scientific information of propagation experiments and space environment, are contained within this document. Project Able-3 will be conducted as a part of the program directed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and is a joint project representing the contributions of a number of cooperating agencies.

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 Survey of Communication and Navigation Concept for Space Escape System, 16 Jun 1969 [61 Pages, 2.92MB] – During manned space operations in near earth orbit, an emergency can occur where mission abort or onboard procedure is incapable of resolving the hazard. A space eacape system is, therefore, being investigated as a possible solution. Since the escape system is an emergency device, its design is not constrained by purely military consideration. Thus, while military missions require secure communication links and recovery sites, space escape systems are not so constrained. A space emergency situation would have distress assistance available on a worldwide basis ae a result of international agreements.

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 The Neutron Pile As a Tool in Quantitative Analysis; The Gallium and Palladium Contents of Iron Meteorites, 1948 [14 Pages, 1.74MB] – In recent years the science of meteoritics has come to be looked upon as a science of increasing importance, in large measure due to recognized bearing of meteorite information upon problems of astrophysical interest. In particular, it now appears-likely that an intensive study of the distribution of elements in meteorites will enable one to draw important conclusions concerning the structure of planets, the origin of our solar system, and the relative “cosmic” abundances of the chemical elements.

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 Report of the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization

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 Star Tek-Exploiting the Final Frontier: Counterspace Operations in 2025 [74 Pages]

 Surface Characteristics of the Moon, Mars and Venus — Anotated Bibliography [90 Pages, 2.45MB]

 U.S. -Soviet Cooperation in Space [114 Pages]

 USSR Report, Earth Sciences [71 Pages]

 USSR Report, Space [244 Pages]

 Various Methods of Perturbing Three Asteroids from an Earth-Impact Trajectory [61 Pages]

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