posted 03-02-2022 08:01 AM               

The Pioneer 10 space probe took measurements of Jupiter's magnetosphere, charted Jupiter's intense radiation belts, located the planet's magnetic field, and discovered that Jupiter is predominantly a liquid planet. Those measurements of the environment around Jupiter were crucial in designing the Voyager and Galileo spacecrafts that flew in 1977 and 1989.

Planned for a 21-month flight to Jupiter launched by a new 3-stage Atlas Centaur (#27) launch vehicle from the Cape's Launch Complex 36A, Pioneer 10 well-out lived the spacecraft's operational life by 30 years. But the launch came within six minutes of being scrubbed a fourth time (this time by a faulty ground indicator) before a flawless liftoff at 8:49 p.m. on that Thursday of March 2, 1972.

For me personally, as a high schooler, the launch of AC-27 with Pioneer 10 tucked away near the top of the rocket, was another early opportunity to witness up-close a live liftoff as an invited guest by NASA's Unmanned Launch Operations directorate.

The 9-foot long and wide robotic space machine, weighing 569 pounds when launched, was built by the TRW Space & Technology Group of Redondo Beach, CA, under a $150 million contract from NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA.

Here are some of the extraordinary accomplishments of this incredible space journey that had been so far away from Earth:

1. First spacecraft to fly into interstellar space

2. First to fly beyond the red planet Mars

3. First to fly through the asteroid belt

4. First to pass Jupiter at 81,000 miles above the cloudtops

5. First to cross the ring planet Saturn's orbit

6. Crossed the orbit of planet Neptune to become the first human-made object to go beyond Neptune

7. First space trip unmatched by any other robotic space vehicle to date

In celebrating the probe's golden anniversary, the postal cover display above depicts some of my favorite Pioneer 10 covers, along with a few original mission badges, a rare pinback, and a Pioneer 10 first day cover issue by spacecraft builder TRW. As you can see, many types of different cachet covers were produced for this remarkable spaceflight voyage. There are even a couple of official NASA rubber stamps by Ames Research Center along with a printed cachet cover of theirs. Several of the covers are signed, mostly by Charles F. Hall, the Pioneer 10 project manager at Ames.

Other Pioneer 10 cachet makers are by Cygnus, Space Voyage Covers, Whitney, InterSpace, Centennial Covers, Artopages, ROMA, and with a few tracking station covers from Barstow, CA, and Madrid, Spain, in this assortment selection.

The Kennedy Space Center postal department reported that less than 2,000 pieces of space mail received Pioneer 10 actual launch day cancels on March 2nd. It appears that many more covers had received a March 3rd cancel — both from KSC/CC —  as it should be noted that post offices were closed at the liftoff time. But covers can be held in advance for a proper day cancellation, therefore, why are there so many cancel dates on the 3rd and not the 2nd?

Less than a couple thousand covers are not that many from KSC by those standards during the early 1970's, however, the launch pad for Pioneer 10 was on the Cape-side and not KSC. On the 3rd, the space probe raced beyond the moon in record time and measured the earth's radiation belts as it cruised to Jupiter more than 600 million miles away.

posted 03-02-2022 06:16 PM               

For Bob, appreciate the comments, and do your Pioneer 10 covers have the correct launch day?

posted 03-03-2022 11:19 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
The bottom two covers seem to commemorate the first launch anniversary of Pioneer 10 in March 1973.

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posted 03-03-2022 12:07 PM               

Anyway, I have only seen covers in my own collection with March 2nd launch day cancels by Space Voyage, Cygnus, and a home-made rubber-stamp/type written cachet.

posted 03-04-2022 03:44 PM               

You will not see my signature on any envelope from that time since I was only a mission controller and not one of the higher-level managers. I am also attaching a black/white photo of some of the management team at the Pioneer Project. Skip Nunamaker is on the far left side, Charles F. Hall is in the middle, and Dr. Fimmel is on the far right side.

By the way, the red cachet on the envelope in the upper left corner was issued by the Public Affairs Office (PAO) at NASA ARC. The Pioneer Saturn 1979 cachet at the bottom, serial number 284, is my artwork that I designed for the NASA ARC Stamp Club. Very nice display of covers.

For more information on the Pioneer Jupiter Mission, I recommend the NASA publication SP-349 "Pioneer Odyssey." This was available awhile ago in print but is also available online at NASA here. In Appendix 3 there is a section under "Contractors" where you will see my name under Kapp, Richard V.