Mission Archive

NASA · 2025

Low Earth orbit

A NASA mission mapping the entire sky in 102 colours of near-infrared light, to study the origin of the Universe, the history of galaxies and the ices in star-forming clouds.

NASA · 2009

Low Earth orbit

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which surveyed the whole sky in infrared light. After its coolant ran out it was revived as NEOWISE to find and track asteroids and comets near the Earth.

NASA · 2009

Heliocentric orbit

A NASA space telescope that watched for the slight dimming of stars as planets crossed in front of them, discovering more than 2,600 exoplanets.

NASA · 2005

Tempel 1, Hartley 2

A NASA mission that fired a 372 kg impactor into comet Tempel 1 to expose material from beneath its surface. The flyby spacecraft later visited a second comet, Hartley 2, as the EPOXI mission.

NASA/SERC/NIVR · 1983

Low Earth orbit

The Infrared Astronomical Satellite, the first telescope to survey the whole sky in infrared light, flown jointly by the United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In ten months it catalogued about 350,000 sources.