1966 - Pioneer 7 satellite was launched from launch complex 17A at Cape Canaveral on this date. The launch vehicle was Thor-Delta E-1. Pioneer 7 was the second in a series of solar orbiters designed to measure, from widely separated points in space on a continuing basis, interplanetary phenomena such as the Sun's magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar and galactic cosmic rays. In 1986 the Pioneer 7 satellite flew within 12.3 million kilometers of Halley’s Comet and in 1995 it was successfully tracked with one scientific instrument still functioning.