OTD In Space - December 12: Pioneer 8 Launches On Mission To Study The Sun

On Dec. 12, 1967, NASA launched the Pioneer 8 spacecraft on a mission to study the sun.

Pioneer 8 was the third in a series of solar-orbiting satellites that NASA launched to observe things like the solar wind, the sun's magnetic fields and cosmic rays, or high-energy particles from outside the solar system. The Pioneer missions provided the world's first network of satellites that could monitor space weather and solar storms, which can cause amazing auroras on Earth, but can also cause some problems. Space weather events can scramble satellite communication systems on Earth and even damage power grids.