Pioneer 10 Status Report 23 Jul 2002

Pioneer 10 distance from Sun : 80.82 AU

Speed relative to the Sun: 12.24 km/sec (27,380 mph)

Distance from Earth: 12.21 billion kilometers (7.59 billion miles)

Round-trip Light Time: 22 hours 37 minutes

There was another Pioneer 10 contact on Sunday, 7/14/02. The Deep Space
Station (DSS) near Madrid (DSS-63) found the signal but was unable to
consistently lock onto the receiver. The signal level was reported at
-185 dBm, just about at the threshold value. During the three hours pass,
lock could only be held for about a minute. The uplink from DSS-14 at
Goldstone, sent Saturday, 7/13/02, confirmed that the spacecraft signal
is still there (Round Trip Light Time 3D 22 hr 38 min).