This is a list of NASA missions, both crewed and

robotic Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

, since the establishment of NASA in 1957. There are over 80 currently active science missions.

X-Plane program

Since 1945,

NACA The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its ...

(NASA's predecessor) and, since January 26, 1958, NASA has conducted the X-Plane Program. The program was originally intended to create a family of

experimental aircraft An experimental aircraft is an aircraft intended for testing new aerospace technologies and design concepts. The term ''research aircraft'' or '' testbed aircraft'', by contrast, generally denotes aircraft modified to perform scientific studies, ...

not intended for production beyond the limited number of each design built solely for flight research. The first X-Plane, the

Bell X-1 The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces– U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by B ...

, was the first rocket-powered airplane to break the

sound barrier The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or other object when it approaches the speed of sound. When aircraft first approached the speed of sound, th ...

on October 14, 1947. X-Planes have set numerous milestones since then, both crewed and unpiloted.

Human spaceflight

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

has successfully launched over 200 crewed flights. Three have ended in failure, causing the death of the entire crew:

Apollo 1 Apollo 1, initially designated AS-204, was planned to be the first crewed mission of the Apollo program, the American undertaking to land the first man on the Moon. It was planned to launch on February 21, 1967, as the first low Earth orbital ...

(which never launched) in 1967 lost three crew members,

STS-51-L STS-51-L was the disastrous 25th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the final flight of Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. It was planned as the first Teacher in Space Project flight in addition to observing Halley's Comet for six day ...

( the ''Challenger'' disaster) in 1986, and STS-107 ( the ''Columbia'' disaster) in 2003. Notes:

Early Obama administration review

In May 2009, the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

announced the launch of an independent review of planned U.S. human space flight activities with the goal of ensuring that the nation is on a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest aspirations in space. The review was conducted by a panel of experts led by Norman Augustine, the former CEO of

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

, who served on the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology under both Democrat and Republican presidents. The " Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans" was to examine ongoing and planned National Aeronautics and Space Administration (

) development activities, as well as potential alternatives and present options for advancing a safe, innovative, affordable, and sustainable human space flight program in the years following Space Shuttle retirement. The panel worked closely with NASA and sought input from the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

the White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 whe ...

, the public, industry, and international partners as it developed its options. It presented its results on October 22, 2009. In February 2010, Obama announced his proposal to cancel the

Constellation program The Constellation program (abbreviated CxP) was a crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a " ...

as part of his reform program. Constellation was officially canceled by the NASA Budget Authorization Act on October 11, 2010.

Future

NASA brought the

Orion spacecraft Orion (Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle or Orion MPCV) is a partially reusable crewed spacecraft used in NASA's Artemis program. The spacecraft consists of a Crew Module (CM) space capsule designed by Lockheed Martin that is paired with a Eu ...

back to life from the defunct

and successfully test-launched the first capsule on December 5, 2014, aboard EFT-1. After a near-perfect flight traveling above Earth, the spacecraft was recovered for study. NASA plans to use the Orion crew vehicle to send humans to deep space locations such as the Moon and Mars starting in the 2020s. Orion will be powered by NASA's new heavy-lift vehicle, the

Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American Super heavy-lift launch vehicle, super heavy-lift Expendable launch system, expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. As the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis program, Artemis Moon landing progra ...

(SLS), which is currently under development.

Artemis I Artemis I, formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Lunar orbit, Moon-orbiting mission that was launched in November 2022. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis I marked the agency's return to lunar e ...

was the first flight of the SLS and was launched as a test of the completed Orion and SLS system. During the mission, an uncrewed Orion capsule spent 10 days in a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon before returning to Earth. Artemis II, the first crewed mission of the program, will launch four astronauts in 2025 on a free-return flyby of the Moon at a distance of . After Artemis II, the Power and Propulsion Element of the

Lunar Gateway The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is a planned space station which is to be assembled in orbit around the Moon. The Gateway is intended to serve as a communication hub, science laboratory, and habitation module for astronauts as part ...

and three components of an expendable lunar lander are planned to be delivered on multiple launches from commercial launch service providers. Artemis III is planned to launch in 2026 aboard an SLS Block 1 rocket and will use the minimalist Gateway and expendable lander to achieve the first crewed lunar landing of the program. The flight is planned to touch down on the

lunar south pole The lunar south pole is the southernmost point on the Moon. It is of interest to scientists because of the lunar water, occurrence of water ice in Crater of eternal darkness, permanently shadowed areas around it. The lunar south pole region fea ...

region, with two astronauts staying there for about one week.

Robotic missions

Suborbital

* Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) – five consecutive launches, 80 seconds apart on March 27, 2012, studied the high-altitude jet stream. * NASA Sounding Rocket Program *

SHIELDS A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

– launched April 19, 2021, collected data from the heliopause.

Earth and Heliocentric satellites

Biosatellite program NASA, NASA's Biosatellite program was a series of three Uncrewed spacecraft, uncrewed artificial satellites to assess the effects of spaceflight, especially radiation and weightlessness, on living organisms. Each was designed to reenter Earth's at ...

:* '' Biosatellite 1'', launched December 1966, :* '' Biosatellite 2'', launched September 1967, :* '' Biosatellite 3'', launched June 1969, *

Cosmic Background Explorer The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE ), also referred to as Explorer 66, was a NASA satellite dedicated to cosmology, which operated from 1989 to 1993. Its goals were to investigate the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB or CMBR) of th ...

(COBE), launched November 1989, * Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), launched September 1991, *

Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) was a joint mission of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Twin satellites took detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field anomalies from its launch in March 2002 to the end of it ...

(GRACE), launched March 2002, * Gravity Recover and Climate Experiment - Follow-On (GRACE-FO), launched May 2018, * NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) – National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), launched October 2011, * Echo 1 and 2, launched August 1960 and January 1964, respectively, *

Great Observatories NASA's series of Great Observatories satellites are four large, powerful space telescope, space-based astronomical telescopes launched between 1990 and 2003. They were built with different technology to examine specific wavelength/energy region ...

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...

, launched April 1990, :*

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was a space observatory detecting photons with photon energy, energies from 20 kElectronvolt#Properties, eV to 30 GeV, in Earth orbit from 1991 to 2000. The observatory featured four main tel ...

, launched April 1991, :*

Chandra X-ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources ...

, launched July 1999, :*

Spitzer Space Telescope The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003, that was deactivated when operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicate ...

, launched August 2003, * High Energy Astronomy Observatory program :* High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 (HEAO 1), launched August 1977, :* Einstein Observatory (HEAO 2) launched November 1978, – first fully imaging

X-ray telescope An X-ray telescope (XRT) is a telescope that is designed to observe remote objects in the X-ray spectrum. X-rays are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, so instruments to detect X-rays must be taken to high altitude by balloons, sounding rockets ...

:* High Energy Astronomy Observatory 3 (HEAO 3), launched September 1979, * Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE), launched March 2000, *

Infrared Astronomical Satellite The Infrared Astronomical Satellite ( Dutch: ''Infrarood Astronomische Satelliet'') (IRAS) was the first space telescope to perform a survey of the entire night sky at infrared wavelengths. Launched on 25 January 1983, its mission lasted ten mo ...

(IRAS), launched January 1983, * Jason-1, launched December 2001, * OSTM/Jason-2, launched June 2008, *

Jason-3 Jason-3 is a satellite altimeter created by a partnership of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), and is an international cooperative mi ...

, launched January 2016, *

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, previously called the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, is a NASA three-telescope space observatory for studying gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and monitoring the afterglow in X-ray, and UV/visible light at the location o ...

(SWIFT), launched November 2004, *

Landsat program The Landsat program is the longest-running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth. It is a joint National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA / United States Geological Survey, USGS program. On 23 July 1972, the Landsa ...

:* Landsat 1, launched July 1972, :* Landsat 2, launched January 1975, :* Landsat 3, launched March 1978, :*

Landsat 4 Landsat 4 is the fourth satellite of the Landsat program. It was launched on July 16, 1982, with the primary goal of providing a global archive of satellite imagery. Although the Landsat Program is managed by NASA, data from Landsat 4 was coll ...

, launched July 1982, :* Landsat 5, launched March 1984, :* Landsat 6, launched October 1993, :*

Landsat 7 Landsat 7 is the seventh satellite of the Landsat program. Launched on 15 April 1999, Landsat 7's primary goal is to refresh the global archive of satellite photos, providing up-to-date and cloud-free images. The Landsat program is managed and ...

, launched April 1999, :*

Landsat 8 Landsat 8 is an American Earth observation satellite launched on 11 February 2013. It is the eighth satellite in the Landsat program and the seventh to reach orbit successfully. Originally called the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM), it i ...

, launched February 2013, :*

Landsat 9 Landsat 9 is an Earth observation satellite launched on 27 September 2021 from Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 3, Space Launch Complex-3E at Vandenberg Space Force Base on an Atlas V , Atlas V 401 launch vehicle. NASA is in charge of building, ...

, launched September 2021, * Living With a Star :*

Van Allen Probes The Van Allen Probes, formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP), were two robotic spacecraft that were used to study the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth. NASA conducted the Van Allen Probes mission as part of the Liv ...

, launched August 2012, – Twin probes studying the

Van Allen radiation belt The Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind, that are captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetosphere. Earth has two such belts, and sometimes others ma ...

Earth Observing System The Earth Observing System (EOS) is a program of NASA comprising a series of artificial satellite missions and scientific instruments in Earth orbit designed for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, earth's atmosphere, at ...

Terra Terra may often refer to: * Terra (mythology), primeval Roman goddess * An alternate name for planet Earth, as well as the Latin name for the planet Terra may also refer to: Geography Astronomy * Terra (satellite), a multi-national NASA scient ...

, launched December 1999, :* Aqua, launched May 2002, :* Aura, launched July 2004, * New Millennium Program (NMP) :* Earth Observing-1 (EO-1), launched November 2000, :*

Space Technology 5 Space Technology 5 (ST5) of the NASA New Millennium program was a test of ten new technologies aboard a group of Microsatellite (spaceflight), microsatellites. Developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the three individual small spacecraft w ...

(ST5), launched March 2006, :* Space Technology 6 (ST6) *

NanoSail-D NanoSail-D was a small satellite which was to have been used by NASA's Ames Research Center to study the deployment of a solar sail in space. It was a three-unit CubeSat measuring , with a mass of . The satellite was lost shortly after launch ...

, launched August 2008, *

NanoSail-D2 NanoSail-D2 was a small satellite built by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center to study the deployment of a solar sail in space. It was a three-unit CubeSat, measuring with a mass of . Its solar sail had an area of , a ...

, launched November 2010, * Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), launched February 2009, * Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2), launched July 2014, * Origins program :* Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE), launched June 1999, :*

Kepler Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of p ...

, launched March 2009, – searching for Earth-sized

exoplanets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first detec ...

in the

habitable zone In astronomy and astrobiology, the habitable zone (HZ), or more precisely the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), is the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressu ...

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

, launched December 2021, * Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS), launched February 2007, * Small Explorer program (SMEX) :* Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM), launched April 2007, :* Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST), launched August 1996, :* Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), launched April 2003, :*

Interstellar Boundary Explorer Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX or Explorer 91 or SMEX-10) is a NASA satellite in Earth orbit that uses energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) to image the interaction region between the Solar System and Outer space, interstellar space. The missi ...

(IBEX), launched October 2008, :* Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), launched June 2012, –

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

telescope orbiting Earth :* Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), launched February 2002, – Sun observing, Earth satellite :* Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX), launched July 1992, :* Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS), launched December 1998, :* Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), launched August 1998, – Sun observing, Earth satellite :* Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE), launched March 1999, * Solar Terrestrial Probes program :* Hinode (Solar-B) :* Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) * Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) * Uhuru *

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...

(WMAP) * Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) * BioSentinel *

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (shortened as the Roman Space Telescope, Roman, or RST) is a NASA infrared space telescope in development and scheduled to launch to a Sun–Earth L2 orbit by May 2027. It is named after former NASA Chie ...

, launching May 2027, *

INCUS The ''incus'' (: incudes) or anvil in the ear is one of three small bones (ossicles) in the middle ear. The incus receives vibrations from the malleus, to which it is connected laterally, and transmits these to the stapes medially. The incus i ...

, launching 2027,

Sun

Pioneer program The Pioneer programs were two series of United States lunar and planetary space probes. The first program, which ran from 1958 to 1960, unsuccessfully attempted to send spacecraft to orbit the Moon, successfully sent one spacecraft to fly by the ...

:* '' Pioneer 6, 7, 8, and 9'', launched between December 1965 and November 1968, –

Solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the Sun's outermost atmospheric layer, the Stellar corona, corona. This Plasma (physics), plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy betwee ...

, solar magnetic field and

cosmic rays Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar ...

* Helios 1 and 2, launched December 1974 and January 1976, * ''Ulysses'' spacecraft, launched October 1990, – ESA partnership * '' Genesis'', launched August 2001, – returned sample of solar wind * Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), launched December 1995, – ESA partnership * Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), launched August 1997, * Solar Maximum Mission (SolarMax), launched February 1980, – suffered partial failure after launch; repaired in April 1984 during a Space Shuttle mission * Solar Terrestrial Probes program :*

TIMED timed (time daemon) is an operating system program that maintains the system time in synchronization with time servers using the Time Synchronization Protocol (TSP) developed by Riccardo Gusella and Stefano Zatti. Gusella and Zatti had done e ...

, launched December 2001, :* Hinode, launched September 2006, :*

STEREO Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

, launched October 2006, :* MMS, launched March 2015, :*

IMAP In computing, the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. IMAP is defined by . IMAP was designed with the goal of per ...

, launching 2025, *

Parker Solar Probe The Parker Solar Probe (PSP; previously Solar Probe, Solar Probe Plus or Solar Probe+) is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 to make observations of the Stellar corona, Sun's outer corona. It used repeated Gravity assist, gravity assists from ...

, launched August 2018, – the first mission into the Sun's corona * Living With a Star :* Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched February 2010, :* Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL) – two campaigns of 20 balloons each, studying the Van Allen radiation belts, 2012 to 2014 This mission is a complement to the Van Allen Probes (RBSP). * CubeSat for Solar Particles (CuSP), launched November 2022

Moon

:* '' Pioneer 0'', launched August 1958, :* '' Pioneer 1'', launched October 1958, :* '' Pioneer 2'', launched November 1958, :* '' Pioneer 3'', launched December 1958, :* '' Pioneer 4'', launched March 1959, :* '' Pioneer P-1'', launched September 1959, :* '' Pioneer P-3'', launched November 1959, :* '' Pioneer P-30'', launched September 1960, :* '' Pioneer P-31'', launched December 1960, *

Ranger program The Ranger program was a series of uncrewed space missions by the United States in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar su ...

:* '' Ranger 1'', launched August 1961, :* '' Ranger 2'', launched November 1961, :* '' Ranger 3'', launched January 1962, :* ''

Ranger 4 Ranger 4 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program, launched in 1962. It was designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to crashing upon the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer ca ...

'', launched April 1962, :* '' Ranger 5'', launched October 1962, :* ''

Ranger 6 Ranger 6 was a lunar probe in the NASA Ranger program, a series of robotic spacecraft of the early and mid-1960s to obtain close-up images of the Moon's surface. It was launched on January 30, 1964 and was designed to transmit high-resolution pho ...

'', launched January 1964, :* '' Ranger 7'', launched July 1964, :* ''

Ranger 8 Ranger 8 was a lunar probe in the Ranger program, a robotic spacecraft series launched by NASA in the early-to-mid-1960s to obtain the first close-up images of the Moon's surface. These pictures helped select landing sites for Apollo missions and ...

'', launched February 1965, :* ''

Ranger 9 Ranger 9 was a Lunar probe, launched in 1965 by NASA. It was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried s ...

'', launched March 1965, * Surveyor program :* '' Surveyor 1'', launched May 1966, :* '' Surveyor 2'', launched September 1966, :* '' Surveyor 3'', launched April 1967, :* '' Surveyor 4'', launched July 1967, :* '' Surveyor 5'', launched September 1967, :* '' Surveyor 6'', launched November 1967, :* '' Surveyor 7'', launched January 1968, *

Lunar Orbiter program The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five uncrewed lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States in 1966 and 1967. Intended to help select Apollo landing sites by mapping the Moon's surface, they provided the first photographs from ...

:* ''

Lunar Orbiter 1 The 1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic spacecraft mission, part of NASA's Lunar Orbiter program, was the first American spacecraft to orbit the Moon. It was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verific ...

'', launched August 1966, :* ''

Lunar Orbiter 2 The 1966 Lunar Orbiter 2 robotic spacecraft mission, part of the Lunar Orbiter program, Lunar Orbiter Program, was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the S ...

'', launched November 1966, :* ''

Lunar Orbiter 3 The Lunar Orbiter 3 was a spacecraft launched by NASA in 1967 as part of the Lunar Orbiter program, Lunar Orbiter Program. It was designed primarily to photograph areas of the Moon, lunar surface for confirmation of safe landing sites for the S ...

'', launched February 1967, :* ''

Lunar Orbiter 4 Lunar Orbiter 4 was a robotic U.S. spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter program, Lunar Orbiter Program, designed to orbit the Moon, after the three previous orbiters had completed the required needs for Project Apollo, Apollo mapping and site s ...

'', launched May 1967, :* ''

Lunar Orbiter 5 Lunar Orbiter 5, the last of the "Lunar Orbiter series", was designed to take additional Project Apollo, Apollo and Surveyor program, Surveyor landing site photography and to take broad survey images of unphotographed parts of the Moon's far sid ...

'', launched August 1967, * '' Clementine'', launched January 1994, *

Discovery Program The Discovery Program is a series of Solar System exploration missions funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through its Planetary Missions Program Office. The cost of each mission is capped at a lower level t ...

:* ''Discovery 3'' – ''

Lunar Prospector ''Lunar Prospector'' was a spacecraft that orbited the Moon for 19 months in 1998-99. From a low polar orbit, it mapped surface composition including lunar hydrogen deposits, measured magnetic and gravity fields, and studied lunar outgassing e ...

'', launched January 1998, :* ''Discovery 11'' –

GRAIL The Holy Grail (, , , ) is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenanc ...

, launched September 2011, * Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³) – instrument for ISRO's '' Chandraayan-1'', launched October 2008, *

Lunar Precursor Robotic Program The Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP) is a NASA program that uses robotic spacecraft to prepare for future human spaceflight, crewed missions to the Moon. The program gathers data such as lunar radiation, surface imaging, areas of scientific i ...

(LPRP) :* LCROSS, launched June 2009, :* ''

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric Polar orbit, polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic ...

'' (LRO), launched June 2009, :* LADEE, launched September 2013, * '' Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiters ShadowCam instrument, launched August 2022, * CAPSTONE, launched November 2022, * '' LunaH-Map'', launched November 2022, * '' Lunar IceCube'', launched November 2022, * '' Lunar Flashlight'', launched December 2022, * Commercial Lunar Payload Services :* '' Peregrine Mission One'', launched January 2024, :* ''

IM-1 IM-1 was a robotic Moon landing mission conducted by Intuitive Machines (IM) in February 2024 using a Intuitive Machines Nova-C, Nova-C lunar lander. After contact with the lunar surface on February 22 the lander tipped to an unplanned 30 de ...

'', launched February 2024, – first commercial lunar landing. First American Moon landing since

Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, ...

in December 1972. :* ''

Blue Ghost Mission 1 Blue Ghost Mission 1 was a robotic Moon landing mission by Firefly Aerospace that launched on January 15, 2025, and successfully Soft landing, soft-landed on the lunar surface on March 2, 2025, at 08:34Coordinated Universal Time, UTC. With thi ...

'', launched January 2025, :* ''

IM-2 IM-2 was a lunar mission run by Intuitive Machines as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. It was launched on 27 February 2025, at 00:16:30 UTC. The Nova-C lunar lander, named ''Athena'', reached the surface of t ...

'', launched February 2025,

Mercury

Mariner program The Mariner program was conducted by the American space agency NASA to explore other planets. Between 1962 and late 1973, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) designed and built 10 robotic interplanetary probes named Mariner to explore the in ...

:* ''

Mariner 10 ''Mariner 10'' was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury (planet), Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets. ''Marin ...

'', launched November 1973, – flyby of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

; multiple flybys of Mercury; first spacecraft to Mercury *

Discovery program The Discovery Program is a series of Solar System exploration missions funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through its Planetary Missions Program Office. The cost of each mission is capped at a lower level t ...

:* ''Discovery 7'' – ''

MESSENGER Messenger, Messengers, The Messenger or The Messengers may refer to: People * Courier, a person or company that delivers messages, packages, or mail * Messenger (surname) * Bicycle messenger, a bicyclist who transports packages through cities * M ...

'', launched August 2004, – first to orbit Mercury

Venus

:* ''

Mariner 1 Mariner 1, built to conduct the first American planetary flyby of Venus, was the first spacecraft of NASA's interplanetary Mariner program. Developed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and originally planned to be a purpose-built probe launched summ ...

'', launched July 1962, – intended to be first American flyby of

:* ''

Mariner 2 Mariner 2 (Mariner-Venus 1962), an American space probe to Venus, was the first robotic space probe to report successfully from a planetary encounter. The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program, it was a simplified version of t ...

'', launched August 1962, – first flyby of

by an operational spacecraft :* '' Mariner 5'', launched June 1967, – flyby of

:* ''

'', launched November 1973, – flyby of

; multiple flybys of Mercury; first spacecraft to Mercury *

:* '' Pioneer 5'', launched March 1960, – interplanetary space between Earth and

:* Pioneer Venus project ::* ''

Pioneer Venus Orbiter The ''Pioneer Venus Orbiter'', also known as ''Pioneer Venus 1'' or ''Pioneer 12'', was a mission to Venus conducted by NASA as part of the Pioneer Venus project. Launched in May 1978 atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket, the spacecraft was inserted into ...

'', launched May 1978, –

orbiter ::* ''

Pioneer Venus Multiprobe The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe, also known as Pioneer Venus 2 or Pioneer 13, was a spacecraft launched in 1978 to explore Venus as part of NASA's Pioneer program. This part of the mission included a Satellite bus, spacecraft bus which was launched ...

'', launched August 1978, –

atmospheric probes * '' Magellan'', launched May 1989, – radar mapping of

:* ''Discovery 15'' – ''

VERITAS In Roman mythology, Veritas (), meaning Truth, is the Goddess of Truth, a daughter of Saturn (mythology), Saturn (called Cronus by the Greeks, the Titan (mythology), Titan of Time, perhaps first by Plutarch) and the mother of Virtus (deity), Vi ...

'', launching 2028, :* ''Discovery 16'' – ''

DAVINCI Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

'', launching 2029,

Mars

:* ''

Mariner 4 Mariner 4 (Mariner C-3, together with Mariner 3 known as Mariner-Mars 1964) was the Mariner program, fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode. It was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations ...

'', launched November 1964, :* '' Mariner 6 and 7'', launched February 1969, :* '' Mariner 8'', launched May 1971, :* ''

Mariner 9 Mariner 9 (Mariner Mars '71 / Mariner-I) was a robotic spacecraft that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971, from Spaceport Florida Launch Comp ...

'', launched May 1971, *

Viking program The ''Viking'' program consisted of a pair of identical American space probes, ''Viking 1'' and ''Viking 2'' both launched in 1975, and landed on Mars in 1976. The mission effort began in 1968 and was managed by the NASA Langley Research Cent ...

:* '' Viking 1'', launched August 1975, :* '' Viking 2'', launched September 1975, * ''

Mars Observer The ''Mars Observer'' spacecraft, also known as the ''Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter'', was a Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe launched by NASA on September 25, 1992, to study the Martian surface, atmosphere, climate and magnetic fie ...

'', launched September 1992, * ''

Mars Global Surveyor ''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It launched November 1996 and collected data from 1997 to 2006. MGS was a global mapping mission that examined ...

'', launched November 1996, *

:* ''Discovery 2'' – ''

Mars Pathfinder ''Mars Pathfinder'' was an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a rover (space exploration), roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a Lander (spacecraft), lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a ligh ...

'' / ''Sojourner'' rover, launched July 1997, :* ''Discovery 12'' – ''

InSight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...

'', launched May 2018, * ''

Mars Polar Lander The Mars Polar Lander, also known as the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander, was a 290-kilogram uncrewed spacecraft lander launched by NASA on January 3, 1999, to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars. It fo ...

'', launched January 1999, :* '' Deep Space 2'', launched January 1999, – (sub-surface probes) * '' 2001 Mars Odyssey'', launched April 2001, *

Mars Exploration Rover NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, ''Spirit (rover), Spirit'' and ''Opportunity (rover), Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rove ...

s :* ''Spirit'' rover, launched June 2003, :* ''Opportunity'' rover, launched June 2003, * ''

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter The ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (''MRO'') is a spacecraft designed to search for the existence of water on Mars and provide support for missions to Mars, as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. It was launched from Cape Canaveral on Au ...

'', launched August 2005, –

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

orbiter *

Mars Scout program Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of Mars surface color, its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () Atmosphere of Mars, atmosphere. At ...

:* '' Phoenix'', launched August 2007, –

lander :*

MAVEN MAVEN is a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of that planet's atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water. The name is an acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution" w ...

, launched November 2013, – orbiter studying the

atmosphere of Mars The atmosphere of Mars is the layer of gases surrounding Mars. It is primarily composed of carbon dioxide (95%), molecular nitrogen (2.85%), and argon (2%). It also contains trace levels of water vapor, oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and nob ...

* ''

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity (rover), Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale (crater), Gale Crater on Augus ...

'' (MSL) / ''Curiosity'' rover, launched November 2011, –

Mars rover A Mars rover is a remote-controlled motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place them ...

exploring

Gale Crater Gale is a crater, and probable dry lake, at in the northwestern part of the Aeolis quadrangle on Mars. It is in diameter and estimated to be about 3.5–3.8 billion years old. The crater was named after Walter Frederick Gale, an amateur a ...

* ''

'', launched May 2018, *

Mars 2020 Mars 2020 is a NASA mission that includes the rover ''Perseverance (rover), Perseverance'', the now-retired small robotic helicopter ''Ingenuity (helicopter), Ingenuity'', and associated delivery systems, as part of the Mars Exploration Progra ...

:* ''Perseverance'' rover, launched July 2020, –

exploring

Jezero Crater Jezero is a Impact crater, crater on Mars in the Syrtis Major quadrangle, about in diameter. Thought to have once been flooded with water, the crater contains a fan-river delta, delta deposit rich in clays. The lake in the crater was present w ...

:* ''Ingenuity'' helicopter, launched July 2020, – first powered flight on

* EscaPADE, launching 2025, * NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return, launching 2027 and 2028,

Jupiter

:* ''

Pioneer 10 ''Pioneer 10'' (originally designated Pioneer F) is a NASA space probe launched in 1972 that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. ''Pioneer 10'' became the first of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity needed ...

'', launched March 1972, – first to the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

and

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

:* ''

Pioneer 11 ''Pioneer 11'' (also known as ''Pioneer G'') is a NASA robotic space probe launched on April 5, 1973, to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, the solar wind, and cosmic rays. It was the first probe to Exploration ...

'', launched April 1973, –

and

, first to

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

Voyager program The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two interstellar probes, ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2''. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment to explore the two gas giants Jupiter ...

:* ''

Voyager 1 ''Voyager 1'' is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar medium, interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It was launched 16 days afte ...

'', launched September 1977, – flybys of

and

; extended mission to explore

interstellar medium The interstellar medium (ISM) is the matter and radiation that exists in the outer space, space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as cosmic dust, dust and cosmic rays. It f ...

; most distant human-made object :* ''

Voyager 2 ''Voyager 2'' is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and enabled further encounters with the ice giants (Uranus and ...

'', launched August 1977, – flybys of

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

, and

Neptune Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 t ...

; extended mission to explore

; first spacecraft to

and

* ''

Galileo Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...

'', launched October 1989, –

and its moons * New Frontiers program :* ''New Frontiers 2'' – ''Juno'', launched August 2011, –

orbiter mission * ''

Europa Clipper Europa Clipper (previously known as Europa Multiple Flyby Mission) is a space probe developed by NASA to study Europa (moon), Europa, a Galilean moon of Jupiter. It was launched on October 14, 2024. The spacecraft used a gravity assist from Mar ...

'', launched October 2024,

Saturn

:* ''

'', launched April 1973, –

and

, first to

:* ''

'', launched September 1977, – flybys of

and

; extended mission to explore

; most distant human-made object :* ''

'', launched August 1977, – flybys of

, and

; extended mission to explore

; first spacecraft to

and

* ''

Cassini–Huygens ''Cassini–Huygens'' ( ), commonly called ''Cassini'', was a space research, space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, i ...

'', launched October 1997, –

and its moons * New Frontiers program :* ''New Frontiers 4'' – ''

Dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threat ...

'', launching 2028, * '' Enceladus Orbilander'', launching 2038,

Uranus

:* ''

'', launched August 1977, – flybys of

, and

; extended mission to explore

; first spacecraft to

and

* Uranus Orbiter and Probe, launching 2032,

Neptune

:* ''

'', launched August 1977, – flybys of

, and

; extended mission to explore

; first spacecraft to

and

Asteroids/comets

* New Millennium Program (NMP) :*

NEAR Shoemaker ''Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker'' (''NEAR Shoemaker''), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Merle Shoemaker, Eugene Shoemaker, was a Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe designed by the Johns ...

, launched February 1996, – close study of 433 Eros :*

Deep Space 1 ''Deep Space 1'' (DS1) was a NASA technology demonstration spacecraft which flew by an asteroid and a comet. It was part of the New Millennium Program, dedicated to testing advanced technologies. Launched on 24 October 1998, the ''Deep Space ...

(DS1), launched October 1998, – first spacecraft propelled by an

ion thruster An ion thruster, ion drive, or ion engine is a form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion. An ion thruster creates a cloud of positive ions from a neutral gas by ionizing it to extract some electrons from its atoms. The i ...

:* ''Discovery 4'' – '' Stardust'', launched February 1999, – follow-up for Deep Impact's primary mission to 9P/Tempel :* ''Discovery 6'' –

CONTOUR Contour may refer to: * Contour (linguistics), a phonetic sound * Pitch contour * Contour (camera system), a 3D digital camera system * Contour Airlines * Contour flying, a form of low level flight * Contour, the KDE Plasma 4 interface for tab ...

, launched July 2002, :* ''Discovery 8'' – '' Deep Impact'' (''primary''); EPOXI (''extended''), launched January 2005, :* ''Discovery 9'' – ''

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the diffuse sky radiation, appearance of indirect sunlight being Rayleigh scattering, scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc ha ...

'', launched September 2007, – Vesta in 2011-2012, and Ceres in 2015-2018 :* ''Discovery 13'' – ''

Lucy Lucy is an English language, English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings ar ...

'', launched October 2021, – Will fly by one main-belt asteroid and seven Jupiter Trojan asteroids. :* ''Discovery 14'' – '' Psyche'', launched October 2023, * New Frontiers program :* ''New Frontiers 3'' –

OSIRIS-REx OSIRIS-REx was a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission that visited and collected samples from 101955 Bennu, a C-type asteroid, carbonaceous near-Earth object, near-Earth asteroid. The material, returned in September 2023, is expected ...

– launched September 2016, *

Double Asteroid Redirection Test The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was a NASA space mission aimed at testing a method of planetary defense against near-Earth objects (NEOs). It was designed to assess how much a spacecraft impact deflects an asteroid through its trans ...

(DART), launched November 2021, * Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, launched November 2022,

Dwarf planets

* New Frontiers program :* ''New Frontiers 1'' – ''

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...

'', launched January 2006, – flyby of

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

and its moons in 2015; first to

:* ''Discovery 9'' – ''

'', launched September 2007, – Vesta in 2011-2012, and Ceres in 2015-2018

Canceled or undeveloped missions

* Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby (CRAF) *

Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter The ''Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter'' (JIMO) was a proposed NASA spacecraft designed to explore the icy moons of Jupiter. The main target was Europa, where an ocean of liquid water may harbor alien life. Ganymede and Callisto, which are now tho ...

(JIMO) * Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (MAX-C) * Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO) *

Asteroid Redirect Mission The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), also known as the Asteroid Retrieval and Utilization (ARU) mission and the Asteroid Initiative, was a space mission proposed by NASA in 2013; the mission was later cancelled. The Asteroid Retrieval Robotic ...

(2013–2017) * Origins Program :* Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) :* Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) * Pluto Kuiper Express (PLUTOKE) – ''replaced by

Old proposals

* Mars Scout program :* Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) (2000-2010 concept) :* TAU (spacecraft)- probe to 1000 AU (1980s concept)

X-Plane program

Human spaceflight

Early Obama administration review

Future

Robotic missions

Suborbital

Earth and Heliocentric satellites

Sun

Moon

Mercury

Venus

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Asteroids/comets

Dwarf planets

Canceled or undeveloped missions

Old proposals

See also

References

Bibliography

External links