Pioneer 10 Space Probe Fires Off Its Last Message

Earth has bid its final farewell to the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, 31 years after the probe set off for the outer regions of the solar system.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Tuesday it had received Pioneer’s final signal last month and would no longer seek to track the now-remote object.

“After it passed Mars on its long journey into deep space, it was venturing into places where nothing built by humanity had ever gone before,” said Colleen Hartman, director of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Division. “It ranks among the most historic as well as the most scientifically rich exploration missions ever undertaken.”

Pioneer 10, one of a series of unmanned space probes, was launched in 1972 to study the outer reaches of the solar system. It was the first to go through the Asteroid Belt, the first to send back pictures of Saturn and Jupiter and the first to go beyond Pluto.

NASA last received a signal back from Pioneer 10 on Jan. 22 from a distance of 7.6 billion miles -- 82 times the distance between the Earth and Sun. It took the faint radio signal 11 hours and 20 minutes to get home, traveling at the speed of light.

“Originally designed for a 21-month mission, Pioneer 10 exceeded all expectations and lasted more than 30 years,” said project manager Larry Lasher at the Ames Research Center in California.

“It was a workhorse that far exceeded its warranty, and I guess you could say we got our money’s worth.”