Pioneer 10, launched in March 1972, was the first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt and the first to reach Jupiter, passing the giant planet at 130,000 km on 3 December 1973. It measured Jupiter's intense radiation and magnetic field and returned the first close-up images. Powered by nuclear generators, it became the first object to leave the inner solar system, carrying a plaque designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake showing human figures and the position of the Earth. Contact was lost in 2003.
Before and after
- 3 November 1973Launch of Mariner 10
- from 14 November 1973 to 17 November 1973Athens Polytechnic uprising
- 29 November 1973Birth of Ryan Giggs
- 1 December 1973Death of David Ben-Gurion
- 3 December 1973Pioneer 10 flies past Jupiter
- 1974Origins of Berlin Marathon
- 1974Introduction of ngultrum
- 1974Creation of CP/M
- 1974Invention of Sed
More in Exploration & discovery
- from 4 October 1957 to 1 July 1975Space race
- 2 March 1958The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the crossing
- 23 January 1960Piccard and Walsh reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep
- 24 December 1968Apollo 8 orbits the Moon and photographs Earthrise
- 11 January 2008Death of Edmund Hillary
- 14 July 2015New Horizons flies by Pluto
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.