This Week in Science History: Pioneer V

  On March 11 1960, Pioneer V was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Pioneer V was a spin-stabilized space probe which was created to investigate the space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. It measured magnetic field phenomena, solar flare particles, and ionization.
The spacecraft transmitted information until the 26th of June (1960) when it was 22.5 million miles from Earth. A total of 138.9 h of operation was completed, which resulted in over 3 million binary bits of data.

Read more at: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1960-001A