Mar 3 1959

From The Space Library

PIONEER IV, fourth U.S.-IGY space probe, a joint ABMA-JPL project under direction of NASA, was launched by a Juno II rocket from AMR and achieved earth-moon trajectory, passing within 37,000 miles of the moon before going into permanent solar orbit. Radio contact was maintained to a record distance of 406,620 miles. It was the first U.S. sun-orbiter.

NASA's Langley Research Center launched first in a series of six-stage solid-fuel rocket research vehicles, the world's first, from Wallops Island, Va., to a speed of Mach 26 in a reentry physics program.