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February 26, 2003

To Infinity... And Beyond!

NASA says goodbye to Pioneer 10.

At last contact, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth, or 82 times the nominal distance between the Sun and the Earth.

...Pioneer 10 will continue to coast silently as a ghost ship into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of the constellation Taurus (The Bull). Aldebaran is about 68 light-years away. It will take Pioneer 10 more than two million years to reach it.

I think that, in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, stories like this are good reminders of our successes - they can re-ignite our passion for venturing to the stars. I'd like to see humanity (or whatever we've evolved into in the next two million years) already in the Aldebaran system* when Pioneer 10 makes its grand entrance.

* I am not a Star Wars geek. Shut up.