Any instrumented object sent beyond Earth to collect data from other parts of the Solar System and from deep space. The first probe was the Soviet Luna 1, which flew past the Moon in 1959. The first successful planetary probe was the US Mariner 2, which flew past Venus in 1962. The first probe to orbit another planet was Mariner 9, which went into orbit around Mars in November 1971. The first space probe to leave the Solar System was Pioneer 10 in 1983.