Pioneer 10 Pioneer 10 Pioneer 10 (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, launched in 1972 and weighing , that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, "Pioneer 10" became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity that will allow them to leave the Solar System. This space exploration project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California, and the space probe was manufactured by TRW Inc. "Pioneer 10" was assembled around a hexagonal bus with a diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna, and the spacecraft was spin stabilized around the axis of
Mercury (planet) of the planet's interior structure. "MESSENGER" final maneuver was on April 24, 2015, and it crashed into Mercury's surface on April 30, 2015. The spacecraft's impact with Mercury occurred near 3:26 PM EDT on April 30, 2015, leaving a crater estimated to be in diameter. The European Space Agency and the Japanese Space Agency developed and launched a joint mission called "BepiColombo", which will orbit Mercury with two probes: one to map the planet and the other to study its magnetosphere. Launched on October 20, 2018, "BepiColombo" is expected to reach Mercury in 2025. It will release a magnetometer probe