Pioneer 4

Pioneer 4 is the American automatic interplanetary station in the Pioneer series. It was intended to explore the moon from the flight path.

Pioneer 4
Appearance of the apparatus "Pioneer-3" and "Pioneer-4"
Customer	NASA
Tasks	exploration of the moon from the flight path
Satellite	Of the sun
Launch pad	Cape Canaveral
Launch vehicle	Jupiter 2
Launch	March 3, 1959 17:11:00 UTC
NSSDC ID	1959-013A
SCN	00113
Specifications
Weight	5.87 kg
Dimensions	height: 58 cm; diameter: 25 cm
Elements of the orbit
Semimajor axis
Eccentricity	0,07109
Mood	29.9 °
Circulation period	398 days
Apocenter	1.13 a. e.
Pericenter	0.98 a. e.

The design of the apparatus weighing 5.87 kilograms and the equipment installed on board are identical to the Pioneer-3 apparatus. Scientific equipment is represented by a Geiger counter and a photoelectric sensor for photographing the lunar surface. The spacecraft was launched on March 3, 1959 from the cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral and on March 4, 1959 at 17:25 flew at a distance of 60,000 kilometers from the Moon at a speed of 7.230 km / s. This distance was too large for the photosensor to trigger. Pioneer-4 transmitted data on the radiation situation for 82 hours to a distance of 658,000 kilometers, as a result no radiation was detected in the lunar environs. After the passage of the moon, Pioneer 4 entered the heliocentric orbit and became a satellite of the sun. This is the first American spacecraft to develop a second space velocity and thus overcome the Earth’s gravity, he did this two months after the Soviet “ Moon-1 ”.