NHAS - Today in Astronomy History

	1968	USSR launches the Zond 4 spacecraft on a likely flight to the Moon. However, it remains in Earth orbit and burns up on reentry the following day.
	1972	US launches the Pioneer 10 spacecraft to Jupiter. It was the highest speed object ever launched from the Earth, passing the Moon just 11 hours after liftoff. On 15 July 1972 it became the first spacecraft to enter the asteroid belt. It passed within 130,354 km (81,000 miles) of Jupiter's cloud tops on 3 December 1973, obtaining the first close-up images of the planet and charting the intense radiation belts and magnetic field. Pioneer 10 is headed in the general direction of the star Albebaran in the constellation Taurus. At a distance of 68 light years, the spacecraft travelling at 132,000 kph (82,000 mph), will take about 2 million years to reach it.