"Pioneer 10" was launched in March 1972, and within 10 hours passed by the Moon; over the next 35 years or so the mission would be the first out laying out many firsts of discoveries about the nature of heliosphere as well as Jupiter's impact on it. "Pioneer 10" was the first spacecraft to detect sodium and aluminum ions in the Solar Wind, as well as helium in the inner Solar System. In November 1972, "Pioneer 10" encountered Jupiter's enormous (compared to Earth) magnetosphere, and would pass in and out of it and heliosphere 17 times charting its interaction with the Solar Wind. "Pioneer 10" returned scientific data until March 1997, including data on the Solar wind out to about 67 AU at that time. It was also contacted in 2003, when it was a distance of 7.6 billion miles from Earth (82 AU), but no instrument data about the solar wind was returned then.