science · 11 October 1958 · 66 years ago
In 1958, the lunar probe Pioneer 1 was launched atop a Thor-Able rocket, from the Eastern Test range (now the Kennedy Space Center). Its intended mission was to reach the moon, but it failed to go as far as planned and fell back to Earth. It transmitted 43 hours of data before burning up in the atmosphere. NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) had just been formed at the beginning of the month.
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