Editing Pioneer 10 (section)

=== Timeline ===
[[File:Pioneer speed and distance from Sun.svg|thumb|right|Pioneer 10 and 11 speed and distance from the Sun]]
{{interstellar_probes_trajectory.svg}}

{|
|-
! colspan="2" | Timeline of travel
|-
|
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" style="width:100px;"| Date
! Event
|-
| {{center|1972-03-03}}
| Spacecraft launched
|-
| {{center|1972-06-}}
| Crossed orbit of Mars
|-
| {{center|1972-07-15}}
| Entered the asteroid belt
|-
| {{center|1973-12}}
| Start Jupiter observation phase
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" style="width:100px;"| Time
! scope="col" style="width:230px;"| Event
|-
| {{center|'''1973-12-03'''}}
| '''Encounter with [[Jovian system]]'''
|-
| {{center|12:26:00}}
| [[Callisto (moon)|Callisto]] flyby at {{Convert|1392300|km|mi|abbr=unit}}
|-
| {{center|13:56:00}}
| [[Ganymede (moon)|Ganymede]] flyby at {{Convert|446250|km|mi|abbr=unit}}
|-
| {{center|19:26:00}}
| [[Europa (moon)|Europa]] flyby at 321,000&nbsp;km
|-
| {{center|22:56:00}}
| [[Io (moon)|Io]] flyby at 357,000&nbsp;km
|-
| {{center|'''1973-12-04'''}}
|
|-
| {{center|02:26:00}}
| Jupiter closest approach at 200,000&nbsp;km
|-
| {{center|02:36:00}}
| Jupiter equator plane crossing
|-
| {{center|02:41:45}}
| Io [[occultation]] entry
|-
| {{center|02:43:16}}
| Io occultation exit
|-
| {{center|03:42:25}}
| Jupiter occultation entry
|-
| {{center|03:42:25}}
| Jupiter shadow entry
|-
| {{center|04:15:35}}
| Jupiter occultation exit
|-
| {{center|04:47:21}}
| Jupiter shadow exit
|-
| {{center|'''1974-01-01'''}}
| '''Phase stop'''
|}
|-
| {{center|1974-01-01}}
| Begin Pioneer Interstellar Mission
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" scope="col" style="width:460px;"| More
|-
| scope="col" style="width:100px;" | {{center|1975-02-10}}
| scope="col" style="width:350px;"| The US Post Office issued a [[US space exploration history on US stamps|commemorative stamp]] featuring the ''Pioneer 10'' space probe [[:File:Pioneer Jupiter 1975 Issue-10c.jpg|''('''See image''')'']].
|-
| {{center|1983-04-25}}
| Crossed orbit of [[Pluto]], still defined as a planet at the time (Pluto's irregular orbit meant it was closer to the Sun than Neptune).<ref name=nyt-19830426/>
|-
| {{center|1983-06-13}}
| Crossed orbit of [[Neptune]], the farthest planet away from the Sun at the time, to become the first human-made object to depart the Solar System.<ref name=p10-in-depth/> By dialing 1-900-410-4111, one could access a recording provided by TRW that was made by slowing down and converting ''Pioneer 10's'' data feed to analog sounds.<ref name=galveston_1983/>
|-
| {{center|1997-03-31}}
| End of mission. Contact is maintained with spacecraft to record telemetry.<ref name=Voyager_passes/>
|-
| {{center|1998-02-17}}
|  ''[[Voyager 1]]'' overtakes  ''Pioneer 10''  as the most distant human-made object from the Sun, at 69.419&nbsp;[[Astronomical Unit|AU]]. ''Voyager 1'' is moving away from the Sun over 1&nbsp;AU per year faster than ''Pioneer 10''.<ref name=Voyager_passes/>
|-
| {{center|2002-03-02}}
| Successful reception of telemetry. 39 minutes of clean data received from a distance of 79.83&nbsp;AU<ref name=EoM/>
|-
| {{center|2002-04-27}}
| Last successful reception of telemetry. 33 minutes of clean data received from a distance of 80.22 AU<ref name=EoM/>
|-
| {{center|2003-01-23}}
| Final signal received from the spacecraft. Reception was very weak and subsequent signals were barely strong enough to detect.<ref name=EoM/>
|-
| {{center|2003-02-07}}
| Unsuccessful attempt to contact the spacecraft.<ref name=EoM/>
|-
| {{center|2006-03-04}}
| Final attempt, again unsuccessful, to contact the spacecraft.
|-
| {{center|2023-07-18}}
| Projections indicate that [[Voyager 2]] overtook Pioneer 10 as the second farthest spacecraft from the Sun<ref name=horizons-vgr2>{{Cite web |title=Distance between the Sun and Voyager 2 |url=https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%27Sun%27&START_TIME=%272023-07-01%27&STOP_TIME=%272023-08-01%27&STEP_SIZE=%271%20day%27&QUANTITIES=%2720%27&CENTER=%27500@-32%27 }}</ref><ref name=horizons-p10>{{Cite web |title=Distance between the Sun and Pioneer 10 |url=https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons_batch.cgi?batch=1&COMMAND=%27Sun%27&START_TIME=%272023-07-01%27&STOP_TIME=%272023-08-01%27&STEP_SIZE=%271%20day%27&QUANTITIES=%2720%27&CENTER=%27500@-23%27 }}</ref>
|}
|}