Mission
The spacecraft was launched on an Air Force-Convair Atlas D intercontinental, ballistic missile coupled to Thor-Able upper stages including an Able solid propellant third stage. The vehicle exploded at T+68 seconds after launch at an altitude of 12 km. The payload fell into the Atlantic Ocean 12 to 20 km from Cape Canaveral in about 20 meter deep water. Subsequent investigation revealed that the second stage had ignited during ascent, detonating the Atlas's fuel supply.
Read more about this topic: Pioneer P-31
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“We can come up with a working definition of life, which is what we did for the Viking mission to Mars. We said we could think in terms of a large molecule made up of carbon compounds that can replicate, or make copies of itself, and metabolize food and energy. So that’s the thought: macrocolecule, metabolism, replication.”
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