] LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Pioneer 10, the first
] spacecraft to venture out of the solar system, has fallen
] silent after traveling billions of miles from Earth on a
] mission that has lasted nearly 31 years, NASA said
] Tuesday.
]
] What was apparently the spacecraft's last signal was
] received January 22 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's
] Deep Space Network. At the time, Pioneer 10 was 7.6
] billion miles from Earth; the signal, traveling at the
] speed of light, took 11 hours and 20 minutes to arrive.

CNN.com - Pioneer 10 falls silent after nearly 31 years - Feb. 25, 2003