Pioneer 9: mission and targets
Data as of 2026-10-04
Dates declared by the archive
- Project start
- November 18, 1968
- Declared end
- May 19, 1983
The start the archive declares is the start of the project, not the launch, and an end it does not declare does not mean the mission is still running.
In Galaxy
None of the targets this mission declares is in Galaxy’s catalogue.
A declared target is what the archive files the mission’s data under, not a record of observation.
Description published by the archive
The Pioneer 9, Pioneer D, was launched on November 8, 1968. It was part of group of spacecrafts to study space weather at various points between Earth and the Sun. The spacecraft was in a solar orbit of 0.8 AU.
Quoted in English, as the archive publishes it, read on October 4, 2026.
Source
Identifier in the archive, which is its citation: urn:nasa:pds:context:investigation:mission.pioneer_9
NASA Planetary Data System, PDS Registry, investigation context products. Dates and targets read on September 29, 2026; how to cite the archive: https://pds.nasa.gov/datastandards/citing/