The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

probe was released on November 16, 1978, and the
three small probes on November 20. All four entered
the Venusian atmosphere on December 9, followed
by the bus. The small probes were each targeted at a different
part of the planet and were named accordingly.
The North probe entered the atmosphere at about 60°
latitude on the day side. The Night probe entered on
the night side. The Day probe entered well into the
Planet- 323
Pioneer 10 Pioneer 10’s plaque, bearing an interstellar message and attached to the spacecraft’s antenna support struts,
can be seen to the right of center in this photo. NASA
pitchover
The programmed turn from the vertical that a rocket
takes as it describes an arc and points in a direction other
than vertical.
Planck
An ESA (European Space Agency) spacecraft designed to
search for tiny irregularities in the cosmic microwave
background over the whole sky with unprecedented sensitivity
and angular resolution. Named after the quantum
theorist Max Planck (1858–1947), it is expected to provide
a wealth of information relevant to several key cos-
day side, and it was the only one of the four probes
that continued to send radio signals back after impact,
for over an hour. With no heat-shield or parachute, the
bus survived and made measurements only to about
110 km altitude before burning up. It afforded the
only direct view of the upper atmosphere of Venus, as
the probes did not begin making direct measurements
until they had decelerated lower in the atmosphere.
mological and astrophysical issues, such as theories of the
early universe and the origin of cosmic structure. Known
prior to its selection as COBRA/SAMBA, this will be the
third of ESA’s Medium-sized Missions in the Horizon
2000 Scientific Program. It is planned for launch in 2007,
together with Herschel.
Planet-
The prelaunch designation of a series of planetary probes
built and launched by the Japanese ISAS agency. This
series includes Planet-A (Suisei) and Planet-B (Nozomi).
See ISAS missions.