space probe

Any instrumented object sent beyond Earth to collect data from other parts of the Solar System and from deep space. The first probe was the Soviet Lunik 1, which flew past the Moon in 1959. The first successful planetary probe was the US Mariner 2, which flew past Venus in 1962, using a transfer orbit. The first space probe to leave the Solar System was Pioneer 10 in 1983. Space probes include Galileo, Giotto, Magellan, Mars Observer, Ulysses, the Moon probes, and the Mariner, Pioneer, Viking, and Voyager series.