What is the name of the first spacecraft to fly by Jupiter?

Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to fly by Jupiter. Launched by NASA on March 3, 1972, it reached the giant planet on December 4, 1973, passing about 81,000 miles (130,354 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops.

The mission achieved several historic milestones. Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt and the first to cross the orbit of Mars. Its Jupiter encounter tested whether a spacecraft could survive the planet’s intense radiation and magnetic environment, while returning close-up measurements and images of the atmosphere and moons.

Pioneer 11 followed with a Jupiter flyby in 1974 and then continued to Saturn. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 arrived later, in 1979, and made far more detailed observations. Galileo eventually became the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, entering orbit in 1995. That distinction is different from Pioneer 10’s earlier achievement as the first spacecraft to fly past the planet.