Bundle Overview
===============

This bundle contains collections of documentation common to Pioneer Program data
archived in the Planetary Data System (PDS). For each Pioneer mission there is one
collection of documentation specific to that mission, which includes descriptions of 
the mission, instrument hosts (spacecraft), and experiments. There is presently
one document collection for Pioneer 8 and one for Pioneer 9.


Pioneer Program Overview
========================
The Pioneer missions set the stage for U.S. space exploration. Pioneer 1 was the first
manmade object to escape the gravitation field of the Earth. Later Pioneer 4 was the
first spacecraft to fly to the moon, Pioneer 10 was the first to Jupiter, Pioneer 11
was the first to Saturn and Pioneer 12 was the first U.S. spacecraft to orbit another
planet, Venus. Pioneers 6, 7, 8 and 9 were first solar monitoring networks. Both
Pioneer 10 and 11 left the solar system. Originally designed to operate for at least 
6 months, most Pioneers lasted for decades. The following table summarizes the Pioneer
spacecraft and scientific objectives of the Pioneer missions.

Name      Launch      Mission       Status (as of 1998)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pioneer 1 1958-10-11    Moon        Reached altitude of 72765 miles
Pioneer 2 1958-11-08    Moon        Reached altitude of 963 miles
Pioneer 3 1958-12-02    Moon        Reached altitude of 63580 miles
Pioneer 4 1959-03-03    Moon        Passed by moon into solar orbit
Pioneer 5 1960-03-11  Solar Orbit   Entered solar orbit
Pioneer 6 1965-12-16  Solar Orbit   Contacted in 2000; Still believed to be operating 
Pioneer 7 1966-08-17  Solar Orbit   Tracked in 1995; Still believed to be operating
Pioneer 8 1967-12-13  Solar Orbit   Contacted in 1996; Still believed to be operating
Pioneer 9 1967-11-08  Solar Orbit   Signal lost in 1983
Pioneer E 1969-08-07  Solar Orbit   Launch failure
Pioneer10 1972-03-02   Jupiter      Communication terminated 1998
Pioneer11 1973-04-05 Jupiter/Saturn Communication terminated 1997
Pioneer12 1978-05-20    Venus       Entered Venus atmos. 1992-10-08