Mission Archive

NASA · 2021

Dinkinesh, Donaldjohanson

A NASA mission on a twelve-year tour of the Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit. On the way it has flown past two main-belt asteroids, finding that the first, Dinkinesh, has a small moon.

NASA/DLR/CNES · 2018

Mars

A NASA lander that listened to the interior of Mars, recording more than 1,300 marsquakes and measuring the size of the planet's core.

NASA · 2016

Bennu

A NASA mission that collected 121 grams of material from the asteroid Bennu and delivered it to Earth in September 2023. The spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX, is now on its way to the asteroid Apophis.

NASA · 2011

Jupiter

A NASA orbiter studying Jupiter's interior, magnetic field and polar regions from a looping polar orbit. It is the first solar-powered spacecraft to operate at Jupiter.

NASA · 2007

Mars

A NASA lander that touched down in the Martian arctic, dug into the soil and confirmed water ice just below the surface.

NASA · 2005

Mars

A NASA orbiter that has studied Mars since 2006 with the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet, and relays most of the data from the rovers on the surface.

NASA · 2003

Heliocentric orbit

The last of NASA's Great Observatories, an infrared telescope that trailed the Earth around the Sun for 16 years. It studied young stars, distant galaxies and exoplanets, including the seven Earth-sized planets of TRAPPIST-1.

NASA · 2001

Mars

NASA's longest-serving Mars orbiter, which mapped the planet's surface chemistry, found vast deposits of buried water ice and has relayed data for every rover since Spirit.

NASA · 1999

Wild 2, Tempel 1

The first mission to bring back samples from a comet, catching dust from comet Wild 2 in aerogel and returning it to Earth in 2006. The spacecraft then flew on to visit comet Tempel 1.

NASA · 1998

Mars

A NASA orbiter intended to study the Martian climate and relay data for Mars Polar Lander. It was lost on arrival when it passed too close to the planet, after thruster data was supplied in imperial units where metric was expected.

NASA · 1996

Mars

A NASA orbiter that mapped Mars for nine years, charting its topography and magnetic field and finding gullies that suggested recent liquid water.