OTD In Space – January 22: Pioneer 10 Beams Last Signal To Earth

On January 22, 2003, NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft beams its last data transmission back to Earth.

Pioneer 10 was NASA's first mission to the outer planets. It was the first spacecraft to fly through the asteroid belt, the first to visit Jupiter, and the first to venture beyond the outer planets. The spacecraft is currently on its way out of the solar system and has traveled more than 10 billion miles away from Earth. While it was originally intended to last just 21 months, Pioneer 10 kept collecting and transmitting data for more than 30 years before its radioisotope power supply decayed, and NASA could no longer contact it.