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
Europa Jupiter System Mission – Laplace 2022-2025. In February 2008, NASA and ESA began joint investigations into sending a probe to study the icy satellites of the outer Solar System under the title Outer Planet Flagship Mission. Two primary candidate missions were considered under the study: EJSM and Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM), also known under the ESA designation TandEM. In February 2009 it was announced that NASA/ESA had given EJSM priority ahead of the TSSM. The ESA contribution still faced funding competition from two other missions, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and the International X-ray Observatory (IXO), which is why NASA kept a contingency