On Dec. 12, 1967, NASA launched the Pioneer 8 spacecraft on a mission to study the sun.
Pioneer 8 was the third in a series of solar-orbiting satellites that NASA launched to observe things like the solar wind, the sun's magnetic fields and cosmic rays, or high-energy particles from outside the solar system. The Pioneer missions provided the world's first network of satellites that could monitor space weather and solar storms, which can cause amazing auroras on Earth, but can also cause some problems. Space weather events can scramble satellite communication systems on Earth and even damage power grids.
Pioneer 8 was the third in a series of solar-orbiting satellites that NASA launched to observe things like the solar wind, the sun's magnetic fields and cosmic rays, or high-energy particles from outside the solar system. The Pioneer missions provided the world's first network of satellites that could monitor space weather and solar storms, which can cause amazing auroras on Earth, but can also cause some problems. Space weather events can scramble satellite communication systems on Earth and even damage power grids.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:03In 1967, NASA launched the Pioneer 8 spacecraft
00:06on a mission to study the sun.
00:08Pioneer 8 was the third in a series of solar orbiting satellites
00:11that NASA launched to observe things like the solar wind,
00:14the sun's magnetic fields, and cosmic rays,
00:16or high-energy particles from outside the solar system.
00:19The Pioneer missions provided the world's first network of satellites
00:21that could monitor space weather and solar storms,
00:24which can cause amazing auroras on Earth,
00:26but can also cause some problems.
00:28Space weather events can scramble satellite communication systems on Earth
00:31and even damage power grids.
00:34And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:37♪♪♪