The space probe Pioneer 11 is moving in the direction of this constellation [Scutum]. It will not near the closest star in this constellation for over a million years at its present speed, by which time its batteries will be long dead.
And, inasmuch as I hoped to be better able successfully to accomplish this work by holding intercourse with mankind, than by remaining longer shut up in the retirement where these thoughts had occurred to me, I betook me again to travelling before the winter was well ended.
NASA’s Pioneer 11 space probe, which flew by Jupiter and Saturn in the 1970s, is expected to pass near the star Lambda (λ) Aquilae in about 4 million years.