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Mission
Kind: Lunar orbiter
State: Successful
Place: Moon
Operator: NASA
Date
Start:
Duration: 2 days (43 hours)
Mission Ending
"Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending." - Jim Henson
Rocket
Rocket: Thor DM-18 Able I
Kind: NASA
Manufacturer: Space Technology Laboratories
Mass: 34.2 kilograms (75 lb)·
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral, LC-17A
Flyby
"Requesting permission for flyby." Maverick - Top Gun
Orbit
"You’re going very fast when you’re on orbit, going around the world once every hour and a half." - Robert Crippen
Lander
"The journey, not the arrival, matters; the voyage, not the landing." - Paul Theroux
Pioneer 1 was an American space probe, the first under the auspices of NASA, which was launched by a Thor-Able rocket on 11 October 1958. It was intended to orbit the Moon and make scientific measurements, but due to a guidance error failed to achieve lunar orbit and was ultimately destroyed upon reentering Earth's atmosphere. The flight, which lasted 43 hours and reached an apogee of 113,800 km (70,700 miles), was the second and most successful of the three Thor-Able space probes.
