Spacecraft · tracked live
Pioneer 11
The first spacecraft to reach Saturn, in 1979, having used Jupiter to get there - and it flew through the ring plane first to prove the path was safe for the Voyagers behind it. Its last signal was received in 1995; it is still coasting outward, no longer able to answer, and its track here is where it has drifted since.
- Agency
- NASA
- Launched
- 1973-04-06 - 1995-09-30
- From the Sun
- 17,657,137,942 km (+955,450 km/d)
- From the Earth
- 17,670,275,074 km (+3,441,711 km/d)
- A signal takes
- 16 h 22 m
- Travelling at
- 11.1 km/s
Distances and speed are computed from JPL Horizons trajectories and are true of the date below, changing at the rate beside each.
Path
An open path out, unpowered and unheard since 1995. Nothing steers it and nothing measures it any more; where it is drawn is where the mechanics say it has drifted to.
Along the way
- Closest to Jupiter, and the swing that aimed it at Saturn
- First to reach Saturn, through the ring plane to prove it safe
- Last contact, two months after routine tracking had ended
Everything the map shows is worked out in your browser from published orbital data - nothing on it is a stored picture of where things were.