This color educational film is about America’s first deep space probe, Pioneer V. Animation depicts the path the spacecraft takes on its journey. This is copyright circa 1960.
Opening: model planet Earth spins round. Scientific engineers at work on a solar panel on a satellite. A rocket. In the distance, the planet Venus (:55). Title: The Path of Venus (:06-1:09). It is 1960, a Thor DM 18-Able IV rocket is on a launchpad. A man with a radio relays information. Construction helmets. Planet Earth in space. A boy looks through a telescope at the moon. Closeup of the moon. The sun. Solar flares on the surface of the sun (1:10-3:24). The planet Jupiter in the distance, followed by Saturn then Mars. A boy looks through a telescope. Solar system still photo. The Milky Way. A boy looks in an observatory. Water vapor moves over a photo of Venus (3:25-5:19). A rocket is on a launchpad. Engineers look up at the rocket. Able 4 was designed to launch Pioneer V into deep space. Men inside mission control. Spot lights turn on. The Pioneer 5 / Able 4 rocket is on the launchpad. A man races down the stairs (5:20-7:29). The rocket is in the countdown stage and ready to take off. Engine start is pressed. The Able 4 rocket leaves the launchpad. Vapor trail as the space probe climbs into the upper layers of the atmosphere. Men inside mission control. Lights on the switchboard. Separation in space between the rocket and the space probe (7:30-9:11). Stars in space. A model of the space probe heads for Venus. A model of the planet Venus spins. Back on earth, Men sit. Women type. Antennas aimed skyward. Giant radar antennas (9:12-10:59). The space probe travels through space. An asteroid in space. Models of planets in space. Launch pad for a rocket. Rocket on the launch pad, smoke billows from it as it’s ready to go (11:00-13:20). End credits (13:21-13:33).
Pioneer 5 (also known as Pioneer P-2, and Able 4, and nicknamed the “Paddle-Wheel Satellite”) was a spin-stabilized space probe in the NASA Pioneer program used to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. It was launched on 11 March 1960 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17A at 13:00:00 UTC[4] with an on-orbit dry mass of 43 kg. It was a 0.66 m diameter sphere with 1.4 m span across its four solar panels and achieved a solar orbit of 0.806 × 0.995 AU (121,000,000 by 149,000,000 km). Data was received until 30 April 1960. Among other accomplishments, the probe confirmed the existence of interplanetary magnetic fields. Pioneer 5 was the most successful probe in the Pioneer/Able series. The original mission plan was for a launch in November 1959 where Pioneer 5 would conduct a flyby of Venus, but technical issues prevented the launch from occurring until early 1960 by which time the Venus window for the year had closed. Since it was not possible to send the probe to Venus, it would instead merely investigate interplanetary space and an actual mission to the planet would have to wait another three years.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
