The U.S. Air Force Pioneer 0 mission (1958)
With the space race in full swing, the U.S. Air Force designed a series of pathfinder missions to assess the feasibility of lunar exploration. Known as the Pioneer missions, they were “first attempt to send a spacecraft anywhere beyond Earth orbit,” according to NASA. The first of these missions, known as Able 1 (and later named Pioneer 0) did not go well, with the Thor-Able rocket exploding 73 seconds after launch on August 17, 1958. The next three Pioneer launches ended similarly, and it wasn’t until the launch of Pioneer 4 on March 3, 1959 that a semblance of success was achieved.
