Completed · Success
NASA's Pioneer 8 was launched to heliocentric orbit to study interplanetary space. It sent back data for nearly 30 years.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Delta-55
- Launch site
- Cape Canaveral, Launch Complex 17B
- Countries
- United States
- Mission types
- Heliophysics
Chronology
Mission timeline
Loss of contact
Last contact using backup transmitter
The later SETI ephemeris is not evidence of later spacecraft telemetry.
Sun
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Pioneer 8 · Spacecraft
Destinations: Sun
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 8: Estimated · July 1, 1997 to December 28, 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 8 - NASA Science — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer 8: spacecraft and original data review — NSSDCAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer 8 mission history — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer6-9 original and restored ephemeris tape documentation — NASAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer6-9 compressed ephemeris tape documentation — NASAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- COHOWeb historical heliographic positions and coordinate conventions — NASAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer8 historical SPK source quality — NAIFSpice · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Major NASA Expendable Launch Vehicle Launches — NASAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Pioneer 8 - NASA Science — NASAMission page · Supports: mission claims
- Horizons Pioneer 8 SETI calibration heliocentric state vectors, 1997–1999 — JPLEphemeris · Supports: mission claims
- NASA Historical Data Book, Volume II, Tables 3-147–3-150: Pioneer 6–9 Characteristics — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- NASA Release 65-375: NASA Schedules First in New Pioneer Series — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- The Interplanetary Pioneers, Volume II: System Design and Development (NASA SP-279) — NASATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Our Sun: Facts — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context