Saturday, November 17, 2001

Pioneer 3

  1958-008A


The first ABMA Pioneer probe, Pioneer III, was launched on 1958 Dec 6 by Juno II AM-11 from pad 5 at Cape Canaveral. The Jupiter cut off early, and the upper stage guidance was poor. The probe did not attain the required velocity, reaching 10.736 km/s instead of 11.136 km/s, and the injection angle was 3.5 deg too low. It reached an apogee of 102200 km. It reentered over Africa at 1952 on 1958 Dec 7. NASA formally was given responsibility for the program but in practice it was still Army run.


Pioneer 3 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1958 Dec 6  0544:52  Launch  
 0547:48  Jupiter shutdown T+2:56 
 0547:56  Jupiter sep T+3:04 
 0548:09  Fairing sep T+3:17 
 0548:47  Stage 2 burn T+3:55 
 0548:53  Stage 2 cutoff 
 0548:56  Stage 3 burn T+4:04 
 0549:02  Stage 3 cutoff 
 0549:05  Stage 4 burn T+4:13 
 0549:11  Stage 4 cutoff 
 0549:20  Stage 4 sep T+4:28 223 km 10.736km/s? -70? x 102209 x 28.5 
 0826  35000 km, 3.50 km/s 
 1530  Despin device failed to operate 
1958 Dec 7  0030? Apogee 102200 km 
 0034102300 km  
 1151  AOS at Puerto Rico 
 1930  LOS from Puerto Rico, 3200 km over Africa 
1958 Dec 7  1951  Reentry at 10.3km/s?  
 1953  burnup at 88 km over 16.4N 18.6E 

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