Mission Archive

NASA · 2018

High Earth orbit

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which watches the brightest nearby stars for planets crossing in front of them. It has found thousands of candidate planets across almost the whole sky.

ESA · 2002

High Earth orbit

ESA's gamma-ray observatory, which observed for more than 22 years. It studied black holes, neutron stars and the gamma-ray glow of the Milky Way, and helped pinpoint the 2017 neutron-star merger first detected in gravitational waves.

ESA · 1999

High Earth orbit

ESA's X-ray observatory, whose three telescopes give it an unusually large collecting area for studying faint sources, from comets to distant galaxy clusters.

NASA · 1999

High Earth orbit

The third of NASA's Great Observatories, an X-ray telescope with the sharpest vision of any yet flown. It studies black holes, supernova remnants and the hot gas in galaxy clusters.

ESA · 1995

High Earth orbit

ESA's Infrared Space Observatory, which made more than 26,000 observations and found water vapour in star-forming clouds, around old stars and in the atmospheres of the giant planets.

ESA · 1989

High Earth orbit

The first space mission devoted to measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars. It was stranded in the wrong orbit by a motor failure but still measured about 118,000 stars with high precision.

NASA/ESA/SERC · 1978

High Earth orbit

The International Ultraviolet Explorer, run jointly by NASA, ESA and the United Kingdom. Planned for three years, it worked for nearly nineteen and was the first space telescope astronomers could operate in real time.