Completed · Success
NASA's Pioneer 11 was the first spacecraft to fly past Saturn, reaching it after a Jupiter gravity assist, and left the Solar System on an escape trajectory.
- Launch vehicle
- Atlas-Centaur
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral, United States
- Countries
- United States
- Mission types
- Flyby
Chronology
Mission timeline
Launch
Pioneer 11 launched
NSSDCA02:11UT; nativeDPTRAJ source gives02:11:00.1. The prelaunch-looking April5 orbit-table epoch is not adopted.
EarthMilestone
Course correction
Reported spacecraft maneuver; no unsourced burn vector or instantaneous interpolation across the event.
SunMilestone
Flew through the asteroid belt
Milestone
Course correction
Reported spacecraft maneuver; no unsourced burn vector or instantaneous interpolation across the event.
SunMilestone
Course correction
Reported spacecraft maneuver; no unsourced burn vector or instantaneous interpolation across the event.
SunMilestone
Course correction
Reported spacecraft maneuver; no unsourced burn vector or instantaneous interpolation across the event.
SunFlyby
First spacecraft to fly by Saturn
Passed Saturn at a distance of 21,000 km from Saturn's cloud tops.
SaturnMilestone
Crossed the orbit of Neptune
Loss of contact
NASA Ames Research Center made last contact with the spacecraft
Mission end
Scientists received last engineering data from Pioneer 11
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Trajectory record
Time-dependent navigation trajectory
Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.
Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.
- Pioneer 11: Reconstructed · April 6, 1973 to December 31, 1999
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 12, 2026
- Pioneer 11 - NASA NSSDCA Spacecraft Details (1973-019A) — NSSDCAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer 11 - NASA Science — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer 11: spacecraft and original data review — NSSDCAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer 11 mission history — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer11 original and SAT336 Saturn encounter solutions — NAIFSpice · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer11 full Ames DPTRAJ trajectory ephemeris archive — NASAEphemeris · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- NASA Historical Data Book, Volume III, Tables 3-123–3-124: Pioneer 10–11 Characteristics — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- NASA Radioisotope Power Systems Missions: Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims
- Pioneer 11 - NASA Science: Scientific Instruments — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims
- Pioneers 10 and 11 Deep Space Missions, NASA TM-102269 — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Our Sun: Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context