Fading Echoes Of A Distant Pioneer

There was another Pioneer 10 contact on Sunday, 7/14/02. The Deep Space Station (DSS) near Madrid (DSS-63) found the signal but was unable to consistently lock onto the receiver.

By Space Daily Editorial Team · Editorial process

Published July 25, 2002 · Updated March 14, 2026

There was another Pioneer 10 contact on Sunday, 7/14/02. The Deep Space Station (DSS) near Madrid (DSS-63) found the signal but was unable to consistently lock onto the receiver. The signal level was reported at – 185 dBm, just about at the threshold value.

During the three hours pass, lock could only be held for about a minute. The uplink from DSS-14 at Goldstone, sent Saturday, 7/13/02, confirmed that the spacecraft signal is still there (Round Trip Light Time 3D 22 hr 38 min).

Pioneer 10 is currently at a distance from Sun of 80.82 AU, traveling at a speed relative to the Sun of 12.24 km/sec (27,380 mph). The current distance from Earth to Pioneer 10 is 12.21 billion kilometers (7.59 billion miles) with a round-trip tight time of 22 hours 37 minutes.

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