Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
07:31:00
Thursday December 16, 1965
Watch Replay
24/7 Coverage
Pioneer 6 was the first in a series of solar-orbiting, spin-stabilized, solar-cell and battery-powered satellites designed to obtain measurements on a continuing basis of interplanetary phenomena from widely separated points in space. Its experiments studied the positive ions and electrons in the solar wind, the interplanetary electron density (radio propagation experiment), solar and galactic cosmic rays, and the interplanetary magnetic field. Its main antenna was a high-gain directional antenna. Although the spacecraft has not been regularly tracked for science data return in recent years, a successful telemetry contact was made on 8 Dec. 2000 to celebrate 35 years of continuous operation since launch.
Heliocentric Orbit
1 Payload
146 kilograms
2nd
Mission
2nd
Mission of 1965
116th
Orbital launch attempt