Mission Atlas
← Mission directory

Mission record

Pioneer 11

Also known as Pioneer-G, Pioneer11

NASA · Launched

Explore trajectory

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.

Destinations
Jupiter, Saturn
Launch vehicle
Atlas-Centaur
Launch site
Cape Canaveral, United States
Countries
United States
Mission types
Flyby

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Pioneer 11 launched

    Earth

  2. Milestone

    Flew through the asteroid belt

  3. Flyby

    Jupiter flyby

    Passed to within 43,000 km of Jupiter's cloud tops.

    Jupiter

  4. Flyby

    First spacecraft to fly by Saturn

    Passed Saturn at a distance of 21,000 km from Saturn's cloud tops.

    Saturn

  5. Milestone

    Crossed the orbit of Neptune

  6. Loss of contact

    NASA Ames Research Center made last contact with the spacecraft

  7. Mission end

    Scientists received last engineering data from Pioneer 11

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Pioneer 11 · Spacecraft · Science operations and daily telemetry ceased on 30 September 1995

    Destinations: Jupiter, Saturn

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through August 23, 2026