Project officials say that obtaining these last few chances to contact Pioneer 10 was a difficult process. The DSN supports many other higher priority missions such as Galileo, Cassini and Ulysses, placing the time for lower priority missions like Pioneer 10 at a premium. The DSN is a collection of large dish-like antennas with installations in Goldstone, California, Canberra, Australia, and Madrid, Spain. The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico is also joining the hunt for Pioneer 10. Observations began on February 26 and will last through March 5 and another set of opportunities will begin on March 8, to last until March 18.
Plans are to have Arecibo observe for around one hour on each of the listed nights.
May. Pioneer 10 was officially retired March 31, 1997. The craft now serves as a training tool for ground controllers and its faint signal provides a radio beacon used by DSN and other facilities to confirm station tracking and receiver performance. Celebrate Columbia Celebrate the 20th anniversary of space shuttle Columbia's historic maiden flight with embroidered patches from the Astronomy Now Store.