Mission Archive

NASA/ESA · 1990

Low Earth orbit

Space telescope capable of observing the universe in ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light.

NASA · 1989

Low Earth orbit

The Cosmic Background Explorer, which measured the faint glow left over from the Big Bang and showed it has an almost perfect black-body spectrum with tiny temperature variations. The work earned the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.

NASA · 1989

Jupiter, Gaspra, Ida

The first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, studying the planet and its moons for eight years and finding evidence of an ocean beneath Europa's ice. On the way it made the first flyby of an asteroid.

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 · 1989

Venus

A NASA orbiter that used radar to see through Venus's clouds, mapping 98% of the surface in detail.

ESA · 1985

Halley's Comet, Grigg–Skjellerup

ESA's first deep-space mission, which passed within 600 km of the nucleus of Halley's Comet in 1986 and returned the first close-up images of a comet's core. It later flew past a second comet, Grigg–Skjellerup.

USSR · 1984

Venus, Halley's Comet

A Soviet-led international mission that dropped a lander and a balloon at Venus, then flew on to pass within 9,000 km of Halley's Comet.

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.

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.

NASA · 1977

Jupiter, Saturn, Interstellar space

A spacecraft that performed flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturn's moon Titan. Currently exploring interstellar space.

NASA · 1977

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Interstellar space

A spacecraft that performed flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Currently exploring interstellar space.

NASA · 1975

Mars

The first American mission to land on Mars and the first to operate there for years. Its orbiter mapped the planet while the lander searched the soil for signs of life.

USSR · 1975

Venus

A Soviet mission whose lander returned the first images from the surface of another planet, while its carrier became the first spacecraft to orbit Venus.

NASA · 1973

Venus, Mercury

The first spacecraft to visit Mercury and the first to use one planet's gravity to reach another, swinging past Venus on the way. It flew past Mercury three times and imaged almost half its surface.

NASA · 1973

Jupiter, Saturn

The second spacecraft to fly past Jupiter and the first to reach Saturn, passing within 21,000 km of its cloud tops in 1979.

NASA · 1972

Jupiter

The first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt and fly past Jupiter, and the first sent on a path out of the Solar System.

NASA · 1971

Mars

The first spacecraft to orbit another planet. It waited out a global dust storm and then mapped the whole of Mars, revealing its volcanoes, canyons and dry riverbeds.

USSR · 1971

Mars

A Soviet orbiter and lander. The lander made the first soft landing on Mars but fell silent about 20 seconds after it began transmitting; the orbiter returned data for eight months.

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.

USSR · 1970

Moon

A Soviet mission that landed Lunokhod 1, the first remote-controlled rover on another world, in Mare Imbrium.

USSR · 1970

Moon

The first robotic mission to bring samples back from another world, returning 101 grams of lunar soil from Mare Fecunditatis.

USSR · 1970

Venus

A Soviet probe that became the first spacecraft to land on another planet and transmit data from its surface. It returned 23 minutes of signal from the surface of Venus.

NASA · 1966

Moon

The first American spacecraft to soft-land on the Moon, returning more than 11,000 images from Oceanus Procellarum.

USSR · 1966

Moon

The first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon and the first to send back pictures from its surface.