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.

CAS · 2024

Low Earth orbit

A Chinese Academy of Sciences mission, with ESA and German partners, that watches wide areas of the sky for sudden bursts of X-rays from events such as stars torn apart by black holes.

NASA/JAXA · 2023

Low Earth orbit

A JAXA and NASA X-ray observatory that measures the energy of X-rays with great precision, revealing the temperature, composition and motion of hot gas around black holes and in galaxy clusters.

ESA · 2023

Sun–Earth L2

An ESA mission mapping the shapes and distances of billions of galaxies across a third of the sky, to study dark matter and dark energy.

NASA/ESA/CSA · 2021

Sun–Earth L2

Infrared space telescope located at the Sun-Earth L2 point.

DLR/Roscosmos · 2019

Sun–Earth L2

A Russian-German X-ray observatory at the Sun–Earth L2 point, built to survey the whole sky. The German eROSITA telescope was switched to safe mode in February 2022; the Russian ART-XC telescope continues to observe.

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.

NASA/JAXA · 2016

Low Earth orbit

A JAXA X-ray observatory built with NASA. It broke apart five weeks after launch when a software error set it spinning out of control, but had already measured the motion of hot gas in the Perseus galaxy cluster.

ISRO · 2015

Low Earth orbit

India's first dedicated astronomy satellite, which observes the same target in ultraviolet, visible and X-ray light at the same time.

ESA · 2013

Sun–Earth L2

An ESA mission that measured the positions, distances and motions of nearly two billion stars to build the most precise three-dimensional map of the Milky Way.

NASA · 2012

Low Earth orbit

The first telescope to focus high-energy X-rays, used to study black holes, exploded stars and the hottest regions around them.

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.

ESA · 2009

Sun–Earth L2

ESA's far-infrared observatory, which carried the largest mirror flown in space at the time. It studied how stars and galaxies form from cold gas and dust.

ESA · 2009

Sun–Earth L2

An ESA mission that mapped the cosmic microwave background in greater detail than any before it, giving the most precise measurements of the age and contents of the Universe.

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 · 2008

Low Earth orbit

A NASA observatory that surveys the whole sky in gamma rays every three hours, studying pulsars, black-hole jets and gamma-ray bursts.

ESA/CNES · 2006

Low Earth orbit

A French-led mission that was the first built to find planets by the dimming of their stars, and that also studied the vibrations of stars to probe their interiors.

NASA · 2004

Low Earth orbit

A NASA observatory that caught gamma-ray bursts and turned within about a minute to observe their afterglows in X-ray, ultraviolet and visible light. Built for a two-year mission, it observed more than 2,000 bursts over nearly 22 years, until atmospheric drag pulled it too low to point steadily.

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.

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.

NASA · 2001

Sun–Earth L2

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, which mapped the cosmic microwave background from the Sun–Earth L2 point. It fixed the age of the Universe at about 13.8 billion years and measured its mix of ordinary matter, dark matter and dark energy.

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.