Achievers: Pioneering In Space

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Still, Van Allen concedes that he's not the man he was at 60. "I find that it really takes me longer to do things and longer to get things through my head--but, hey, I'm still pretty good!" he says. It may be that Van Allen has identified with his favorite spacecraft, the aging Pioneer 10, launched in 1972 on the first mission to cruise by Jupiter. Last December, when his instrument package was the only one of the 11 aboard Pioneer 10 that was still working, he waited patiently as a powerful radio telescope at Goldstone, Calif., sent the craft a command that took more than 11 hours to reach it. Pioneer responded, and another 11 hours later a telescope of the Deep Space Network picked up its faint signal. "It was still there," says Van Allen proudly, "and it was still working." By February, however, Pioneer's voice could no longer be heard, and NASA reluctantly abandoned the mission. But Van Allen's voice is still here, coming in loud and clear.