Pioneer P-3

Launch Failure

Liftoff Time (GMT)

07:26:00

Thursday November 26, 1959

Watch Replay

24/7 Coverage

Mission Details

Launch Notes

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

Wiki

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

Rocket

Retired
Atlas-D Able

Active 1959 to 1960


Rocket

Height: 35m

Liftoff Thrust

1,880 Kilonewtons

Stages

3

Launch Site

LC-14

Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Fastest Turnaround

14 days 23 hours

Stats

Atlas-Able


1st

Mission

1st

Mission of 1959

1959


23rd

Orbital launch attempt