Launch Failure
Liftoff Time (GMT)
07:26:00
Thursday November 26, 1959
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Maiden flight of Atlas-Able. Payload fairing broke up at T+45 seconds, leading to loss of the upper stages and payload. Atlas performed normally.
Pioneer P-3 (also known as Atlas-Able 4 or Pioneer X) was intended to be a lunar orbiter probe, but the mission failed shortly after launch. The objectives were to place a highly instrumented probe in lunar orbit, to investigate the environment between the Earth and Moon, and to develop technology for controlling and maneuvering spacecraft from Earth. It was equipped to take images of the lunar surface with a television-like system, estimate the Moon's mass and topography of the poles, record the distribution and velocity of micrometeorites, and study radiation, magnetic fields, and low-frequency electromagnetic waves in space.
Trans Lunar Injection
1 Payload
168 kilograms
1st
Mission
1st
Mission of 1959
23rd
Orbital launch attempt