High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Pioneer 10 (also called Pioneer F) was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt, on July 15, 1972, and to make direct observations of Jupiter, which it passed by on December 3, 1973. It was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 36A on March 3, 1972 at 01:49:00 UTC. Pioneer 10 is heading in the direction of Aldebaran, located in Taurus. By some definitions, Pioneer 10 has become the first artificial object to leave the solar system. It is the first human-built object to have been set upon a trajectory leading out of the solar system. However, according to the estimated trajectory, it has not yet passed the heliopause or the Oort cloud.