Juno II

Status

Partial Failure

Pioneer 3

Launch Time
Sat Dec 06, 1958 05:44 UTC

Maiden flight of Juno II. Premature first stage cutoff and erroneous angle during orbital insertion resulted in failure to reach orbit. Catalogued despite being on a suborbital trajectory. Returned data on radiation between the Earth and Moon.

Watch

Rocket

Juno II

ABMA

Status: Retired

Liftoff Thrust: 667 kN

Payload to LEO: 41 kg

Stages: 4

Strap-ons: 0

Rocket Height: 24.0 m

Details

Mission Details

Pioneer 3

This spacecraft was intended as a lunar probe, but failed to go past the Moon and into a heliocentric orbit as planned, but did reach an altitude of 102,360 km before falling back to Earth. The revised spacecraft objectives were to measure radiation in the outer Van Allen radiation belt using two Geiger-Müller tubes and to test the trigger mechanism for a lunar photographic experiment.

Payloads: 1

Total Mass: 6.0 kg

Trans Lunar Injection

Wiki

Location

LC-5, Cape Canaveral SFS, Florida, USA

Wiki

Stats

1958

27th orbital launch attempt

1st mission

1st mission of 1958