Hey everyone,
This was the first probe launched by the United States to exit Earth's gravity. The craft flew by the moon and entered an orbit around the sun. It came within 60,000 kilometers of the moon. Pioneer 4 only weighed 6.1 kg, but it carried many devices including a photoelectric sensor, two Geiger-Muller tubes, and a transmitter. Again, mercury batteries were used to power the craft. It was launched on March 4, 1959 on the Juno II which was a modified version of Juno I (which launched Explorer I). It did not discover any radiation on the moon, and it also did not trigger its photoelectric sensor because it wasn't close enough to the moon. However, it did achieve the primary objective of an Earth-Moon trajectory. While this may not seem like an impressive (well, I hope it's impressive) feat, this and Luna 1 paved for the way for a journey to the moon by man.
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