Pioneer 0
Pioneer 0 (Able 1) — the first attempt by any nation to reach the Moon, launched by the US Air Force on 17 August 1958, six weeks before NASA opened. Its Thor booster exploded 73 seconds after lift-off, about 15 km over the Atlantic, when a turbopump failed. It never reached space.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- NASA / US Air Force
- Launched
- August 17, 1958
- Status
- Lost
Trajectory
- Distance from the Sun
- 1.01 AU
- Distance from Earth
- 4,496 km
- Distance from Venus
- 0.601 AU
Mission
Pioneer 0 was humanity's first attempt to reach beyond Earth — a bid to send a spacecraft to the Moon before any nation had left low Earth orbit, and before NASA even existed. The US Air Force launched it on 17 August 1958 from Cape Canaveral, carrying a small probe built by Space Technology Laboratories toward lunar orbit. It never had a chance. Seventy-three seconds after lift-off a bearing in the Thor booster's turbopump failed; the engine lost thrust, the vehicle lost control, and it exploded about fifteen kilometres over the Atlantic, its upper stages tumbling into the sea. Yet the attempt mattered: it was the first time anyone had tried to send a craft to another world, and the hard lessons of its failure fed directly into the Pioneer and lunar programmes that followed within weeks under the new civilian space agency.
- 1958The first reach for the MoonLaunch
The US Air Force launches the first attempt by any nation to send a spacecraft to another world.
- 1958Booster explosionMission end
A turbopump fails and the Thor booster explodes 73 seconds after lift-off, ~15 km over the Atlantic.
Images
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