As the article suggests, the fact that light carries energy and momentum (and even that those are related by E = p c) were explained by classical electromagneti

As the article suggests, the fact that light carries energy and momentum (and even that those are related by E = p c) were explained by classical electromagnetic theory before Einstein -- and further the chief effect of general relativity on the Pioneers in the is just Newtonian gravitation. The fact that the spacecraft radiates thermally is due to Max Planck. The use of "Einstein" in this article is highly misleading because the Pioneer anomaly exists at scales where Einstein's work was not of major importance. That's not to say that I don't like Einstein; I and every physicist I know like him. Einstein is great because, though he did bring a bunch of genius to the field (especially in general relativity), his major discoveries from 1905 are mostly unoriginal. That may seem like an odd point to praise, but let me emphasize that it required a certain bravery to do what he did with them. So his three 1905 discoveries are "You have to take Ludwig Boltzmann seriously when he talks about atoms! They would have a length scale, here's how you would find out about it through diffusion experiments." and "You have to take Max Planck seriously when he says light comes in lumps! They would only kick electrons with a certain amount of energy, here's how you would use this to explain the photoelectric effect." and "You have to take Lorentz transforms seriously when they say that the speed of light is something we all agree on! Here's why the equations don't lead to contradictions if we're clear on what we mean by 'synchronizing clocks' etc." So he's doing some work with real, cutting insight, but he's doing it on someone else's intriguing observations, to show that those paradoxical results must be taken seriously. It's really due to Einstein that we can have a physics culture where crazy ideas like quantum field theory or string theory are worked out in detail, to see whether the paradoxical appearance is surface or deeper. So we all love Einstein, but this article isn't why. It's not that Einstein was miraculously right, it's that Einstein was brave enough to take others seriously.