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[b]Space Cover #242: FAR OUT! Pioneer 10 and Voyager 1[/b] This week's Space Cover of the Week features covers from two unmanned spacecraft that are looong gone: Pioneer 10 and Voyager 1. Pioneer 10 was launched on March 2, 1972, while Voyager 1 was launched on August 20, 1977. On June 13, 1983, Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to exit the Solar System. It is continuing on, now after 40 years more than 8 billion miles from Earth. But speedier Voyager 1 had better and further plans. Announced recently, after analysis it was determined that on August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 became the first man-made object to pass into the cold, dark vastness of interstellar space - beyond the influence of the sun. So lonely Voyager 1 continues on, and cruising at a speedy 38,000 mph, it has traveled 11.7 billion miles beyond Earth. Amazingly, it continues to send back data, which takes 17 hours to reach Earth and is expected to continue until about 2025. Pioneer 10 and Voyager 1 were covered well philatelically, and shown here are covers marking some of Pioneer 10's and Voyager 1's milestones. The top three covers mark Pioneer 10 milestones, with the top cover canceled at Cape Canaveral for Pioneer 10's departure from the Solar System, and autographed by Charles Hall, Pioneer Program Manager. The middle cover is from the Ames Research Center, with a nice ARC cachet and cancel announcing Pioneer 10 leaving the Solar System. The bottom cover marks Pioneer 10's final transmission on January 22, 2003. It now travels on silently toward red star Aldebaran, 68 light years away (It'll arrive there in about 2 million years!). [IMG]http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2323/13132186/23370140/408229839.jpg[/IMG] The bottom three covers mark Voyager milestones, with the top cover canceled for both Voyager 1 and 2 rollouts to Pad 41, and the middle cover is canceled for both launches, and autographed by top personnel involved in the Titan-Centaur launches boosting Voyager 1 and 2 toward the stars. The bottom cover marks Voyager 1's fly-by of Saturn (following Voyager 2's first encounter) and among others, it is autographed by Voyager Project Scientist, Dr. Ed Stone, now 77 and still involved with Voyager. In the way of philatelic news concerning Pioneer 10, the KSC HQs building canceled less than 2,000 pieces of mail for the Pioneer 10 launch. Also, on February 28, 1975, the USPS issued a 10-cent stamp commemorating the Pioneer/Jupiter deep-space exploration program. The Pioneer commemorative stamp can be seen above on two covers. Many other covers exist for various Pioneer 10 and Voyager 1 milestones and events and we would welcome further covers here.
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