PIONEER 11OURSYSTEM.SPACE
PIONEER 11
DATA SHEET
SPACECRAFT · NASA
Signal Lost

Pioneer 11

First spacecraft to study Saturn in detail

Launched
1973-04-05
Distance from Sun
~78.07 AU
Distance (km)
~11,679,272,000 km
Speed
~11.4 km/s
Destination
Interstellar space (Aquila direction)
Mission Specs
AgencyNASA
Launch Date1973-04-05
StatusSignal Lost
Heliocentric Speed~11.4 km/s
Current RegionInterstellar space (Aquila direction)
Current Position (Apr 2026)
Distance from Sun~78.07 AU
X (ecliptic)52.8 AU
Y (ecliptic N)-22.8 AU
Z (ecliptic)-52.8 AU
Mission Overview

Following its Jupiter flyby in 1974, Pioneer 11 used Jupiter's gravity to reach Saturn — becoming the first spacecraft to study Saturn up close (1979). It discovered two new moons and a new ring, and measured the planet's magnetic field. Contact was lost in November 1995 when its power source could no longer operate its transmitter. Pioneer 11 is heading toward the Aquila constellation.

3D ViewImage Gallery
Data Sources
Position data: NASA JPL Horizons System · Mission data: NASA / JPL Mission Pages · Images: NASA Image & Video Library