The Explorers' Club, № CMXCVI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 50th Anniversary of Pioneer 10, Part II
3 December 1973: Pioneer 10 made its closest approach to Jupiter, to within 82,000 miles of the planet; the probe imaged the Great Red Spot & all four of the Galilean moons, winning an Emmy for the real-time broadcast back to Earth; the intense radiation within the Jovian system generated false computer commands; the slingshot effect of Jupiter's gravity flung Pioneer 10 out of the solar system.

Commentary: Contact was maintained with Pioneer 10, as it passed beyond the orbits of Uranus, Neptune, & Pluto & headed out into interstellar space, until 23 January 2003, almost forty-one years after the probe's March 1972 launch.

Semper exploro.