| |
| A
|
| |
Active Cavity Irradiance Monitor Satellite
Launch: December 20, 1999
This satellite is designed to monitor the total amount of the Sun's energy reaching Earth. These data will help climatologists improve their predictions of climate change and global warming over the next century.
Satellite home page
Mission description
|
| |
Advanced Radio Interferometry Between Space and Earth
Proposed Launch: to be determined
If selected, this mission will further the study of supermassive black holes by obtaining images with resolutions 3,000 times greater than NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The mission will consist of a radio telescope in space operating with many radio telescopes on the ground.
Mission home page
|
| |
Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
Launch: December 18, 1999
This imaging instrument flying on NASA's Terra satellite is designed to obtain high-resolution global, regional and local views of Earth in 14 color bands.
Instrument home page
Mission description
|
| |
Aquarius
Proposed Launch: 2006 - 2007
This mission will provide the first-ever global maps of salt concentrations in the ocean surface needed to understand heat transport and storage in the ocean. |
| |
Atmospheric Infrared Sounder
Launch: May 4, 2002
This instrument is to be flown aboard NASA's Aqua satellite to make highly accurate measurements of air temperature, humidity, clouds and surface temperatures.
Instrument home page
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| C
|
| |
Cassini-Huygens to Saturn
Launch: October 15, 1997
A joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency,
Cassini is sending a sophisticated robotic spacecraft
to orbit the ringed planet and study the Saturnian system in detail over a
four-year period. Onboard Cassini is a scientific probe called Huygens that will be released
from the main spacecraft to parachute through the atmosphere to the
surface of Saturn's largest and most interesting moon, Titan, which is
shrouded by an opaque atmosphere.
Cassini home page
Mission description
|
| |
CloudSat
Planned Launch: 2004
CloudSat's trio of three satellites will be the first spacecraft to study clouds on a global basis. Their data will contribute to better predictions of clouds and their role in climate change.
CloudSat home page
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| D
|
| |
Dawn
Planned Launch: 2006
A competitively selected mission under NASA's Discovery Program, Dawn will orbit Vesta and Ceres, two of the largest asteroids in the solar system.
Dawn home page
Mission description
|
| |
Deep Impact
Planned Launch: 2004
Deep Impact is a spacecraft that will travel to Comet Tempel 1 and release a small impactor, creating a hole in the side of the comet.
Deep Impact home page
Mission description
|
| |
Deep Space 1
Launch: October 24, 1998
Unlike missions focused on science investigations, Deep Space 1 is a spacecraft designed to flight-test new technologies -- including an ion engine that could power solar system explorers of the future. With its primary mission successfully completed,
the craft went on an extended mission and flew by comet Borrelly in
September 2001, taking the best pictures ever of a comet's nucleus.
Deep Space 1 home page
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| E
|
| |
Explorer 1-5
Launches: January-August, 1958
Explorer 1 became the first satellite launched by the United States on January 31, 1958. Its main payload was a cosmic ray detector which discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belts. It was followed by four similar satellites, two of which were successful.
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| G
|
| |
Galaxy Evolution Explorer
Launch: April 28, 2003
This mission uses ultraviolet wavelengths to measure the history of star formation 80 percent of the way back to the Big Bang.
Galex home page
Mission description
|
| |
Galileo to Jupiter
Launch: October 18, 1989
Upon arrival at Jupiter in December 1995, the Galileo spacecraft delivered a probe that descended into the giant planet's atmosphere. Since then the orbiter has completed many flybys of Jupiter's major moons, reaping a variety of science discoveries. The mission ended on Sept. 21, 2003 when the spacecraft plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere.
Galileo home page
Mission description
|
| |
Genesis
Launch: August 8, 2001
Following launch August 8, 2001, the Genesis spacecraft headed toward an orbit around L1, a point between Earth and the Sun where the gravity of both bodies is balanced, to collect particles of the solar wind. After two years, the samples will be returned to Earth.
Genesis home page
Mission description
|
| |
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
Launch: Mar. 17, 2002
This joint U.S.-German mission consists of two spacecraft flying in tandem to measure Earth's gravitational field very precisely. This will enable a better understanding of ocean surface currents and ocean heat transport.
Grace home page
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| |
| H
|
| |
Herschel Space Observatory
Planned Launch: 2007
The Herschel Space Observatory is a space-based telescope that will study the universe by the light of the far-infrared and submillimeter portions of the spectrum.
Mission home page |
| |
Hydros
Proposed Launch: 2006 - 2007
This proposed mission, if selected, will provide the first global measurements of soil moisture and surface freeze/thaw information which is crucial in understanding the land/air exchanges of water, energy and carbon.
|
| |
| I
|
| |
Infrared Astronomical Satellite
Launch: January 25, 1983
This satellite put an infrared telescope in orbit above the interference of Earth's atmosphere. The mission provided many unexpected findings, including the discovery of solid material around the stars Vega and Fomalhaut.
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| J
|
| |
Jason 1
Launch: December 7, 2001
This oceanography mission is a follow-up to Topex/Poseidon and will monitor global ocean circulation, discover the tie between the oceans and atmosphere, improve global climate predictions, and monitor events such as El Niño.
Jason home page
Mission description
|
| |
Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter
Proposed Launch: Not before 2011
This proposed mission would orbit three planet-sized moons of Jupiter -- Callisto, Ganymede and Europa -- to make extensive investigations of their makeup, their history and their potential for sustaining life.
Mission home page
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| K
|
| |
Keck Interferometer
First Light: March 2001
The Keck Interferometer links two 10-meter (33-foot) telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The linked telescopes form the world's most powerful optical telescope system. They will be used to search for planets around nearby stars, as part of NASA's quest to find habitable, Earth-like planets.
Telescope home page
|
| |
Kepler Mission
Planned Launch: 2007
The Kepler Mission will search for Earth-like planets with the "transit" method. A one-meter diameter (39-inch) telescope equipped with the equivalent of 42 high quality digital cameras will continuously monitor the brightness of 100,000 stars, looking for planets that cross the lines-of-sight between Kepler and their parent stars.
Mission home page
|
| |
| L
|
| |
Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer
Planned Launch: 2004
Two 8-meter (26-foot) telescopes on Mount Graham, Arizona will be connected. The system will identify faint dust clouds around other stars that might hinder planet-finding missions. The mission is managed by the University of Arizona, Tucson in conjunction with multipe international partners.
Mission home page
|
| |
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
Planned Launch: 2010
If selected, this mission will observe gravitational waves from binary stars both inside and beyond our galaxy, including gravitational waves generated in the vicinity of the very massive black holes found in the centers of many galaxies. The mission will consist of three spacecraft forming an equilateral triangle while traveling in space.
Mission home page
|
| |
| M
|
| |
Magellan to Venus
Launch: May 4, 1989
This orbiter used imaging radar to map 99 percent of the surface of Venus over four years.
After concluding its radar mapping, Magellan made global maps of
Venus's gravity field. Flight controllers also tested a new maneuvering
technique called aerobraking, which uses a planet's atmosphere to slow
or steer a spacecraft.
Archived Magellan site
Mission description
|
| |
Mariner 1-2 to Venus
Launches: July 22 and August 27, 1962
Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to fly by another planet, studying Venus' atmosphere and surface. During its journey to Earth's neighbor, the craft made the first-ever measurements of the solar wind.
Mission description
|
| |
Mariner 3-4 to Mars
Launches: November 5 and 28, 1964
Mariner 4 collected the first close-up photos of another planet when it flew by Mars.
As it passed the planet it revealed lunar-type impact craters, some
of them touched with frost in the chill Martian evening.
Mission description
|
| |
Mariner 5 to Venus
Launch: June 4, 1967
Originally a backup Mars craft, Mariner 5 was redirected to Venus, flying within 4,000 kilometers (approximately 2,500 miles) of that planet.
Mission description
|
| |
Mariner 6-7 to Mars
Launches: February 24 and March 27, 1969
Mariner 6 and 7 completed the first dual mission to Mars, flying past the equator and south polar regions and analyzing the Martian atmosphere and surface with remote sensors.
Mission description
|
| |
Mariner 8-9 to Mars
Launches: May 8 and 30, 1971
Mariner 9 was the first artificial satellite of Mars, orbiting the planet for nearly a year.
It revealed a very different planet than expected -- one that boasted gigantic volcanoes and
an immense canyon stretching 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) across its surface.
Mission description
|
| |
Mariner 10 to Venus and Mercury
Launch: November 3, 1973
With the scorched inner planet of Mercury as its ultimate target, the Mariner 10 spacecraft pioneered the use of a "gravity assist" swing by Venus to bend its flight path.
Mission description
|
| |
Mars 2005 and beyond
In 2005 and beyond, missions proposed under the Mars Exploration Program include a powerful scientific orbiter and a "smart" lander to test new landing technologies. A robotic mission to return Martian samples to Earth is envisioned later.
Mars exploration site
Mission description
|
| |
Mars Climate Orbiter
Launch: December 11, 1998
Mars Climate Orbiter, designed to function as an interplanetary weather satellite, was lost on arrival at the planet.
Mars exploration
Mission description
|
| |
Mars Exploration Rovers
First rover launch: June 10, 2003. Second rover launch: July 7, 2003
Two landers will convey to Mars a pair of powerful rovers able to trek up to 100 meters (about 110 yards) across the planet's surface each Martian day.
Mars exploration
Mission description
|
| |
Mars Global Surveyor
Launch: November 7, 1996
This orbiter has studied the entire Martian surface, atmosphere and interior, and has returned more data about the red planet than all other
Mars missions combined. Among key science findings so far, Global Surveyor has taken pictures of
gullies and debris flow features that suggest there may be current sources
of liquid water, similar to an aquifer, at or near the surface of the planet.
Surveyor home page
Mission description
|
| |
Mars Observer
Launch: September 25, 1992
This Mars orbiter was lost shortly before arrival at the red planet.
Mars exploration
Mission description
|
| |
2001 Mars Odyssey
Launch: April 7, 2001
Mars Odyssey is an orbiting spacecraft designed to determine the composition of the Martian surface, to detect water and shallow buried ice, and to study the radiation environment.
Odyssey home page
Mission description
|
| |
Mars Pathfinder
Launch: December 4, 1996
Mars Pathfinder, consisting of a lander and the Sojourner rover, returned an unprecedented amount of data as they explored an ancient flood plain in Mars’ northern hemisphere known as Ares Vallis.
Archived Pathfinder site
Mission description
|
| |
Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2
Launch: January 3, 1999
This ambitious mission to set a spacecraft down on the frigid terrain near the edge of Mars' south polar cap was lost during descent and landing.
Archived Deep Space 2 site
Mission description
|
| |
Microwave Instrument on the Rosetta Orbiter
Planned Launch: tba
This JPL instrument will study gases given off by a comet as the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft orbits the comet during its swing through the inner solar system.
Instrument home page
Instrument description
|
| |
Microwave Limb Sounder
Planned Launch: 2004
This instrument due to fly aboard NASA's Aura spacecraft is designed to improve our understanding of ozone, especially how it is depleted by processes of chlorine chemistry.
Instrument home page
Mission description
|
| |
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer
Launch: December 18, 1999
Carried onboard NASA's Terra satellite, this instrument is a sophisticated imaging system that collects images from nine widely spaced angles as it glides above Earth.
Instrument home page
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| N
|
| |
NASA Scatterometer
Launch: August 17, 1996
This ocean-observing satellite carries an instrument called a scatterometer, which operates by sending radar pulses to the ocean surface and measuring the "backscattered" or echoed radar pulses bounced back to the satellite. It could acquire hundreds of times more observations of surface wind velocity each day than can ships and buoys.
Scatterometer home page
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| |
| O
|
| |
Ocean Surface Topography Mission
Proposed Launch: 2006
This mission is a follow-on to the Jason-1 mission. |
| |
Ocean Vector Winds Mission
Proposed Launch: 2008
This mission is a follow-on to Sea Winds on Adeos II. |
| |
Orbiting Carbon Obvservatory
Proposed Launch: 2006 - 2007
This mission will make the first space-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide with the accuracy and resolution needed to characterize its sources and sinks. This information will improve forecasts of future concentrations of this important greenhouse gas and its impact on climate.
Mission home page |
| |
| P
|
| |
Pioneer 3-4
Launches: December 6, 1958; March 3, 1959
Pioneer 3 and 4 were early satellites designed to be lofted toward the Moon. Pioneer 4 successfully passed within 60,000 kilometers (37,300 miles) of the Moon and is now orbiting the Sun, the first U.S. spacecraft placed in solar orbit.
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| Q
|
| |
Quick Scatterometer
Launch: June 19, 1999
This ocean-observing satellite carries an instrument called a scatterometer, which operates by sending radar pulses to the ocean surface and measuring the "backscattered" or echoed radar pulses bounced back to the satellite. This instrument can acquire hundreds of times more observations of surface wind velocity each day than can ships and buoys.
Instrument home page
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| R
|
| |
Rangers to the Moon
Launches: 1961-65
The Ranger project of the 1960s was the first U.S. effort to launch probes directly toward the Moon. The craft were designed to relay pictures and other data as they approached the Moon and finally crash-landed into its surface. Although the first attempts failed, the later Rangers were a complete success.
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| S
|
| |
Seasat
Launch: June 26, 1978
This experimental satellite flight-tested four instruments that used radar to study Earth and its seas. Many later Earth-orbiting instruments developed at JPL owe their legacy to this mission.
Mission description
|
| |
SeaWinds on Midori 2
Launch: December 13, 2002
This scatterometer instrument, called SeaWinds, flies on Japan's Midori 2. Scatterometers sense ripples caused by winds near the ocean's surface, from which scientists compute wind speed and direction.
Instrument home page
Mission description
|
| |
Shuttle Imaging Radar
Launches: 1981, 1984, 1994, 2000
This series of missions flown on NASA's Space Shuttle over two decades pioneered imaging radar,
a technology that uses radar pulses to capture images of Earth. After two missions in the
1980s, projects in 1994 and 2000 added new radar frequencies and a second antenna to measure
Earth's topography.
Radar home page
Mission description
|
| |
Shuttle Payloads
Launches: Various dates
In addition to the Shuttle Imaging Radar series, a number of JPL payloads have flown over the years in the cargo bay of NASA space shuttles.
Mission description
|
| |
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
Launch: February 2000
On a 11-day flight aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000, SRTM acquired enough data to obtain the most complete near-global mapping of our planet's topography to date.The mission is still processing data and images.
|
| |
Single Aperture Far-Infrared Observatory
Proposed Launch: 2015
The Single Aperture Far-Infrared Observatory is a large cryogenic space-based telescope optimized for observations in the mid-infrared to submillimeter wavelength range.
Mission home page
|
| |
Solar Mesosphere Explorer
Launch: October 6, 1981
This satellite investigated the processes that create and destroy ozone in Earth's upper atmosphere.
Mission description
|
| |
Space Infrared Telescope Facility
Launch: August 25, 2003, Eastern time (August 24, Pacific time)
This mission is an infrared telescope that will study the early universe, old galaxies and forming stars, and will detect dust discs around stars where planets may be forming.
Telescope home page
Mission description
|
| |
Space Interferometry Mission
Proposed Launch: 2009
This mission is an orbiting interferometer, which will link multiple telescopes to function in unison as a much larger "virtual telescope." The main goal is to detect planets of varying sizes -- from huge planets the size of Jupiter down to planets a few times as massive as Earth.
Mission home page
Mission description
|
| |
Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry (Space VLBI)
Launch Date: February 1997
Japan's Very Long Baseline Interferometry Space Observatory Program spacecraft is an international mission to study the distant universe, including black holes. The spacecraft's onboard radio astronomy antenna observes with ground radio antennas, including NASA's Deep Space Network, to create the equivalent of a radio-observing telescope bigger than Earth.
Mission home page
|
| |
Stardust
Launch: February 7, 1999
The Stardust spacecraft will fly through the cloud of dust that surrounds the nucleus of comet Wild-2 and, for the first time ever, bring cometary material back to Earth.
Stardust home page
Mission description
|
| |
Surveyors to the Moon
Launches: 1966-68
The Surveyor missions were the first U.S. efforts to make soft landings on the Moon. Most were successful and the Surveyor series acquired almost 90,000 images from five lunar sites.
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| T
|
| |
Terrestrial Planet Finder
Proposed Launch: 2014
This mission will use multiple telescopes working together to take family portraits of stars and their orbiting planets. It will also determine which planets may have the right chemistry for life.
Mission home page
Mission description
|
| |
Topex/Poseidon
Launch: August 10, 1992
A joint effort between NASA and France's National Center for Space Studies, this satellite mission measures sea level every 10 days. This mission allows scientists to chart the height of the seas across ocean basins with an accuracy of less than 10 centimeters (4 inches), affording a unique view of ocean phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña.
Mission home page
Mission description
|
| |
Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer
Planned Launch: 2004
This instrument, which will fly aboard NASA's Aura spacecraft, is an infrared sensor designed to study Earth's troposphere and look at ozone.
Instrument home page
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| U
|
| |
Ulysses solar polar mission
Launch: October 6, 1990
A joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency, Ulysses was carried into Earth orbit aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery and propelled toward Jupiter, where the giant planet's gravity helped direct the craft's flight path into an unusual orbit around the Sun. It has since made several orbital passes of the Sun's north and south poles.
Ulysses home page
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| V
|
| |
Viking to Mars
Launches: August 20 and September 9, 1975
The Viking project was the first mission to land a spacecraft safely on the surface of another planet. Two identical craft each had an orbiter and a lander; both orbiter-lander pairs successfully studied Mars.
Mars exploration
Mission description
|
| |
Voyager to the outer planets
Launches: August 20 and September 5, 1977
The twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2 flew by and observed Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 went on to visit Uranus and Neptune. Both craft are now heading out of the solar system. In 1998, Voyager 1 became the most distant human-made object in space.
Voyager home page
Archived Voyager, The Grandest Tour site
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |
| |
| W
|
| |
Wide Field and Planetary Camera
Launches: April 24, 1990; December 2, 1993
These two instruments have served as the main camera capturing pictures on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. When an optical flaw was discovered in Hubble's main mirror, JPL's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 corrected the space telescope's vision and saved the mission.
Camera home page
Mission description
|
| |
Wide-field Infrared Explorer
Launch: March 4, 1999
The cryogenically cooled infrared telescope onboard this small satellite became unusable shortly after launch.
Mission description
|
| |
| Back to Top |