Pioneer P-3 (Atlas-Able 4), a NASA lunar orbiter probe with imaging and science instruments, failed ~45 s after Atlas-Able launch from Cape Canaveral when an unvented fiberglass fairing broke up at max-Q and stripped off the upper stages.
- Outcome
- Failure
- Orbit
- LO
- Lunar orbit
- Payload to orbit
- Did not reach orbit
- Flight
- 1st
- of 3 Atlas-Able flights
- Date and time
- 26 November 1959, 07:26 UTC
- Rocket
- Atlas-Able
- Builder
- Convair
- Launch site
- Space Launch Complex 14, Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
- Payload
- Lunar Exploration
- Launches in 1959
- 23rd of 23