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There was another Pioneer 10 contact on Sunday, 7/14/02. The Deep Space Station (DSS) near Madrid (DSS-63) found the signal but was unable to consistently lock onto the receiver. The signal level was reported at - 185 dBm, just about at the threshold value. During the three hours pass, lock could only be held for about a minute. The uplink from DSS-14 at Goldstone, sent Saturday, 7/13/02, confirmed that the spacecraft signal is still there (Round Trip Light Time 3D 22 hr 38 min). Pioneer 10 is currently at a distance from Sun of 80.82 AU, traveling at a speed relative to the Sun of 12.24 km/sec (27,380 mph). The current distance from Earth to Pioneer 10 is 12.21 billion kilometers (7.59 billion miles) with a round-trip tight time of 22 hours 37 minutes. Related Links Pioneer 10 Website Track Sol's First Stellar Explorers at Heaven's Above SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
An Early NASA Pioneer Still On The Job In Deep Space
Moffett Field - Mar 4, 2002It took a little extra effort, but NASA this weekend bridged a nearly seven-and-a-half billion mile span to make contact with Pioneer 10, a plucky space probe that first left Earth's gravitational pull more than 30 years ago. |
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