NASA and the Case of the Slowing Satellite

In 1972, NASA launched the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, a nine-foot tall satellite, into space, headed for Jupiter and beyond. Though the probe lacked a sophisticated electronics array or even a real camera (remember, this was five years before the first personal computer was invented), it continued to transmit huge amounts of data back to NASA's Ames Laboratory for the next thirty years, giving scientists the first glimpses of the far reaches of our solar system.