Pioneer 6

Reached Perihelion on 19 May 1966.

Specifications:

Mission details:

• Pioneer A to E (Pioneer 6 to 9 after launch) were a series of five solar-orbiting, spin-stabilized, solar-cell and battery-powered satellites designed to obtain measurements of interplanetary phenomena from widely separated points in space on a continuing basis. The spacecrafts carried experiments to study positive ions and electrons in the solar wind, the interplanetary electron density (radio propagation experiment), solar and galactic cosmic rays, and the interplanetary magnetic field. Their main antenna were a high-gain directional antenna. The spacecrafts were spin-stabilized at about 60 rpm, and the spin axis was perpendicular to the ecliptic plane and pointed approximately toward the south ecliptic pole.
• There was a successful contact of Pioneer 6 for about two hours on 8 December 2000 to commemorate its 35th anniversary. The control room at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA, was manned by Project Manager: Larry Lasher, Flight Director: Dave Lozier, Chief Flight Controller: Ric Campo, and Flight System Engineer; Larry Kellogg, with Network Operations Project Engineer: Ida Millner at JPL. Some 35 years from the launch date of 12/16/65, Pioneer 6 telemetry data were received expeditiously as spacecraft lockup occurred on the first attempt on Day 344 UT 0000:45 (local time 4:00:45 PM PST) at DSS-14 at Goldstone. Pioneer 6 was 83 million miles distant from Earth. The track lasted approximately 2.5 hours. The Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR)=9 dB and signal strength (AGC)=-164 remain at approximately the same levels as the last previous contact in October 6, 1997 demonstrating the stability and durability of NASA's oldest extant spacecraft.
  (Ref: http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNStat.html )