NASA's Pioneer 10 Continues Silent Journey Toward Aldebaran with Cosmic Message
Pioneer 10, a NASA spacecraft launched on March 2, 1972, is on a silent journey through space, heading in the general direction of the star Aldebaran in the Taurus constellation. The spacecraft, which was the first to cross the main asteroid belt and fly past Jupiter, carries a gold-anodized aluminum plaque. This plaque, designed by Carl Sagan and others, features figures of a man and a woman, along with a cosmic map intended to guide any potential finders back to Earth. Although Pioneer 10's routine science mission ended in 1997, NASA continued to track its weakening signal until the last faint transmission was received in January 2003. The spacecraft is now unpowered and untracked, estimated to be around 140 astronomical units from the Sun. 
