UMSF space history photo of the month Options

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Maybe we could make this a monthly item, in which we could look back at the history of Unmanned Space missions.
For January 2008 I've chosen an image showing the coverage of the Sun by early Pioneer 5-8 spacecraft.
Pioneer 5 to 8, or Pioneer V to VIII using the system of Roman numerals in vogue during the early 1960s for spacecraft designations, were directed towards the Sun along the earth's orbit to monitor solar activity. Pioneer V was launched on 11th March 1960 and provided the very first space weather report 4 to 8 hours before a solar storm hit the Earth.
Some of this Pioneer quartet, Pioneer 6-7-8 even provided updates on our Sun's activity during the early Apollo Moon landings in order to check the damaging potential of solar flares to affect the astronauts.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Trying to show another early unmanned spacecraft, I have chosen Pioneer II
The Pioneer 2 spacecraft is prepared atop its third stage with the Able stage visible on the right. The cylinder-shaped Pioneer 2 weighted 39.6 kg and was 74 cm in diameter with a height from cone to cone of about 76 cm. Note the eight small low-thrust solid propellant velocity adjustment rockets mounted on the end of the upper cone in a ring assembly which could be jettisoned after use. It was launched on 8th November 1958 by a Thor-Able launch vehicle on direct ascent to lunar orbit. However, escape velocity was not reached as the third stage failed to ignite and the spacecraft burned up in Earth’s atmosphere after a 412 minutes flight…