June 13 | in Event Today
In 1983 Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System as it passed beyond the orbit of Neptune
Pioneer 10 passed through Saturn's orbit in 1976 and Uranus' orbit in 1979. On June 13, 1983, the vehicle passed the orbit of Neptune, the Solar System's outermost planet at the time, becoming the first human-made object to leave the Solar System's main planets' neighbourhood. Pioneer 10 made its final transmission to Earth from a distance of 7.6 billion miles in January 2003. NASA maintained routine communication with Pioneer 10 for more than two decades until March 31, 1997, at 19:35 UT, when normal contact was ended owing to budgetary constraints.