| THE RACE TO THE MOON | ||
Pioneer 4, launched on March 3, 1959, was the fifth attempt of the program. As yet, the other missions had all been failures. Pioneer 1 exploded 77 seconds after launch, and the other missions did not travel past the Earth’s atmosphere. While the plan for Pioneer 4 included impacting on the lunar surface, the craft was only successful in reaching the Earth/Moon trajectory. It became the first spacecraft from the United States to escape the Earth’s gravitational pull when it flew about 36,652 miles past the lunar surface. Pioneer 4 was not the first craft to reach the vicinity of the lunar surface. That designation belonged to the Luna 1 spacecraft, launched from Russia. |
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