Mission Archive

NASA/ASI · 2021

Didymos, Dimorphos

The first planetary defence test. NASA deliberately crashed the spacecraft into Dimorphos, the small moon of the asteroid Didymos, and shortened its orbit by 32 minutes.

NASA · 2006

Jupiter, Pluto, Arrokoth

The first spacecraft to explore Pluto, flying past it and its moon Charon in July 2015, and later the small Kuiper belt object Arrokoth, the most distant world ever visited.

NASA · 2004

Mercury

The first spacecraft to orbit Mercury. Over four years it mapped the whole planet and found water ice in permanently shadowed craters near the poles.

NASA · 1996

Eros, Mathilde

The first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid and the first to land on one, settling onto Eros in 2001 after a year in orbit around it. On the way it flew past the asteroid Mathilde.

NASA · 1970

Low Earth orbit

The first satellite built specifically for X-ray astronomy. Launched from a platform off the coast of Kenya, it produced the first full catalogue of X-ray sources in the sky.