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List of NASA missions

Topic: Astronomy

 From HandWiki - Reading time: 18 min
Short description: List of space missions by NASA

Comparison of NASA Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle spacecraft with their launch vehicles

This is a list of NASA missions, both crewed and robotic, since the establishment of NASA in 1957. There are over 80 currently active science missions.[1]

X-Plane program

Main article: Engineering:List of X-planes

Since 1945, NACA (NASA's predecessor) and, since January 26, 1958, NASA has conducted the X-Plane Program. The program was originally intended to create a family of experimental aircraft not intended for production beyond the limited number of each design built solely for flight research.[2] The first X-Plane, the Bell X-1, was the first rocket-powered airplane to break the sound barrier on October 14, 1947.[3] X-Planes have set numerous milestones since then, both crewed and unpiloted.[4]

Human spaceflight

Main article: Astronomy:Human spaceflight
Discovery STS-120 launch, October 23, 2007
Astronauts Andrew Feustel (right) and Michael Fincke, outside the ISS during the STS-134 mission's third spacewalk.
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt standing next to a boulder at Taurus-Littrow.
Astronaut Peter Wisoff on a robotic arm, 1993

NASA has successfully launched over 200 crewed flights. Three have ended in failure, causing the death of the entire crew: Apollo 1 (which never launched) in 1967 lost three crew members, STS-51-L (the Challenger disaster) in 1986, and STS-107 (the Columbia disaster) in 2003.

Program Start date First crewed flight End date No. of crewed
missions launched 		Notes
Mercury program 1958 1961 1963 6 First U.S. crewed program
Gemini program 1961 1965 1966 10 Program used to practice space rendezvous and EVAs
Apollo program 1960 1968 1972 11[a] Landed first humans on the Moon
Skylab 1964 1973 1974 3 First American space station
Apollo–Soyuz Test Project 1971 1975 1975 1 Joint with Soviet Union
Space Shuttle program 1972 1981 2011 135[b] First missions in which a spacecraft was reused
Shuttle-Mir program 1993 1995 1998 11[c] Russian partnership
International Space Station 1993 1998 Ongoing 65 Joint with Roscosmos, CSA, ESA, and JAXA; Americans flew on Russian Soyuz after 2011 retirement of Space Shuttle
Commercial Crew Program 2011 2020 Ongoing 8 Current program to shuttle Americans to the ISS
Artemis program 2017 2026 (planned) Ongoing 0 Current program to bring humans to the Moon again

Notes:

  1. Apollo 1 was unlaunched due to a fire during testing that killed the astronauts, and is not counted here.
  2. One Space Shuttle mission ended with the destruction of the vehicle and death of the entire crew before reaching orbit.
  3. The Shuttle-Mir missions were all Space Shuttle missions, and are also counted under the Space Shuttle program missions in the table.

Early Obama administration review

In May 2009, the Obama administration announced the launch of an independent review of planned U.S. human space flight activities with the goal of ensuring that the nation is on a vigorous and sustainable path to achieving its boldest aspirations in space. The review was conducted by a panel of experts led by Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin, who served on the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology under both Democrat and Republican presidents.[5]

The "Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans" was to examine ongoing and planned National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) development activities, as well as potential alternatives and present options for advancing a safe, innovative, affordable, and sustainable human space flight program in the years following Space Shuttle retirement. The panel worked closely with NASA and sought input from the United States Congress, the White House, the public, industry, and international partners as it developed its options. It presented its results on October 22, 2009.[6][7] [8]

In February 2010, Obama announced his proposal to cancel the Constellation program as part of his reform program. Constellation was officially canceled by the NASA Budget Authorization Act on October 11, 2010.

Future

NASA brought the Orion spacecraft back to life from the defunct Constellation program and successfully test-launched the first capsule on December 5, 2014, aboard EFT-1.  After a near-perfect flight traveling 3,600 miles (5,800 km) above Earth, the spacecraft was recovered for study.  NASA plans to use the Orion crew vehicle to send humans to deep space locations such as the Moon and Mars starting in the 2020s.  Orion will be powered by NASA's new heavy-lift vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), which is currently under development.

Artemis I was the first flight of the SLS and was launched as a test of the completed Orion and SLS system.[9] During the mission, an uncrewed Orion capsule spent 10 days in a distant retrograde 60,000 kilometers (37,000 mi) orbit around the Moon before returning to Earth.[10] Artemis II, the first crewed mission of the program, will launch four astronauts in 2026[11] on a free-return flyby of the Moon at a distance of 8,900 kilometers (5,500 mi).[12][13][14]

After Artemis II, the Power and Propulsion Element of the Lunar Gateway and three components of an expendable lunar lander are planned to be delivered on multiple launches from commercial launch service providers.[15]

Artemis III is planned to launch in 2026[16] aboard an SLS Block 1 rocket and will use the minimalist Gateway and expendable lander to achieve the first crewed lunar landing of the program. The flight is planned to touch down on the lunar south pole region, with two astronauts staying there for about one week.[15][17][18][19][20]

Robotic missions

Suborbital

Earth and Heliocentric satellites

  • Applications Technology Satellites
  • ATS-1, launched December 1966, completed
  • ATS-2, launched April 1967, completed
  • ATS-3, launched November 1967, completed
  • ATS-4, launched August 1968, completed
  • ATS-5, launched August 1969, completed
  • ATS-6, launched May 1974, completed
  • Terra, launched December 1999, operational
  • Aqua, launched May 2002, operational
  • Aura, launched July 2004, operational

Sun

  • TIMED, launched December 2001, operational
  • Hinode, launched September 2006, operational
  • STEREO, launched October 2006, operational
  • MMS, launched March 2015,[38] operational
  • IMAP, launched September 2025, operational

Moon

See also: Astronomy:Exploration of the Moon
  • Ranger 1, launched August 1961, failed
  • Ranger 2, launched November 1961, failed
  • Ranger 3, launched January 1962, failed
  • Ranger 4, launched April 1962, failed
  • Ranger 5, launched October 1962, failed
  • Ranger 6, launched January 1964, failed
  • Ranger 7, launched July 1964, completed
  • Ranger 8, launched February 1965, completed
  • Ranger 9, launched March 1965, completed
  • Discovery 3 – Lunar Prospector, launched January 1998, completed
  • Discovery 11 – GRAIL, launched September 2011, completed [43]

Mercury

  • Discovery program
  • Discovery 7 – MESSENGER, launched August 2004, completed – first to orbit Mercury

Venus

  • Mariner 1, launched July 1962, failed – intended to be first American flyby of Venus
  • Mariner 2, launched August 1962, completed – first flyby of Venus by an operational spacecraft
  • Mariner 5, launched June 1967, completed – flyby of Venus
  • Mariner 10, launched November 1973, completed – flyby of Venus; multiple flybys of Mercury; first spacecraft to Mercury
  • Discovery 15 – VERITAS, launching 2028, future
  • Discovery 16 – DAVINCI, launching 2029, future

Mars

See also: Astronomy:Exploration of Mars
  • Viking 1, launched August 1975, completed
  • Viking 2, launched September 1975, completed
  • Discovery 2 – Mars Pathfinder / Sojourner rover, launched July 1997, completed
  • Discovery 12 – InSight, launched May 2018, completed
  • Deep Space 2, launched January 1999, failed – (sub-surface probes)
  • Spirit rover, launched June 2003, completed
  • Opportunity rover, launched June 2003, completed
  • EscaPADE, launched November 2025, enroute

Jupiter

  • New Frontiers 2 – Juno, launched August 2011, operational – Jupiter orbiter mission[44]

Saturn

  • New Frontiers 4 – Dragonfly, launching 2028, future

Uranus

Neptune

Asteroids/comets

  • Discovery 4 – Stardust, launched February 1999, completed – follow-up for Deep Impact's primary mission to 9P/Tempel
  • Discovery 6 – CONTOUR, launched July 2002, failed
  • Discovery 8 – Deep Impact (primary); EPOXI (extended), launched January 2005, completed
  • Discovery 9 – Dawn, launched September 2007, completed – Vesta in 2011-2012, and Ceres in 2015-2018
  • Discovery 13 – Lucy, launched October 2021, operational – Will fly by one main-belt asteroid and seven Jupiter Trojan asteroids.[45]
  • Discovery 14 – Psyche, launched October 2023, enroute

Dwarf planets

  • Discovery 9 – Dawn, launched September 2007, completed – Vesta in 2011-2012, and Ceres in 2015-2018

Canceled or undeveloped missions

Old proposals

  • Mars Scout program

See also

References

  1. ↑ "NASA Science Missions | Science Mission Directorate". https://science.nasa.gov/missions-page?field_division_tid=All&field_phase_tid=29. 
  2. ↑ "Dryden Historic Aircraft - X-planes overview". Dryden Flight Research Center. NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/history/HistoricAircraft/X-Planes/1940/index.html. 
  3. ↑ "Bell X-1 "Glamorous Glennis"". Milestones of Flight. National Air and Space Museum. http://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/gal100/bellx1.html. 
  4. ↑ "APPENDIX A; HISTORY OF THE X-PLANE PROGRAM". Draft X-33 Environmental Impact Statement. NASA. https://history.nasa.gov/x1/appendixa1.html. 
  5. ↑ Wall, Mike (January 20, 2017). "President Obama's Space Legacy: Mars, Private Spaceflight and More". Space.com. https://www.space.com/35394-president-obama-spaceflight-exploration-legacy.html. 
  6. ↑ "OSTP Press Release Announcing Review (pdf, 50k)". http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/358006main_OSTP%20Press%20Release.pdf. 
  7. ↑ "No to NASA: Augustine Commission Wants to More Boldly Go". http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/10/no-nasa-augusti.html. 
  8. ↑ "House Gives Final Approval to NASA Authorization Act". SpaceNews. September 30, 2010. https://spacenews.com/house-gives-final-approval-nasa-authorization-act/. 
  9. ↑ Foust 2019, "Artemis 1, or EM-1, will be an uncrewed test flight of Orion and SLS and is scheduled to launch in June of 2020."
  10. ↑ Heaton & Sood 2020, p. 3.
  11. ↑ Berger, Eric (2025-09-23). "NASA targeting early February for Artemis II mission to the Moon" (in en). https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/nasa-targeting-early-february-for-artemis-ii-mission-to-the-moon/. 
  12. ↑ Hambleton, Kathryn (2018-08-27). "First Flight With Crew Important Step on Long-Term Return to Moon". http://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-first-flight-with-crew-important-step-on-long-term-return-to-the-moon-missions-to. 
  13. ↑ Hambleton, Kathryn (2019-05-23). "NASA's First Flight With Crew Important Step on Long-term Return to the Moon, Missions to Mars". https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-first-flight-with-crew-important-step-on-long-term-return-to-the-moon-missions-to. 
  14. ↑ Heaton & Sood 2020, p. 7.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Weitering, Hanneke (May 23, 2019). "NASA Has a Full Plate of Lunar Missions Before Astronauts Can Return to Moon". https://www.space.com/nasa-moon-missions-before-2024.html. "And before NASA sends astronauts to the moon in 2024, the agency will first have to launch five aspects of the lunar Gateway, all of which will be commercial vehicles that launch separately and join each other in lunar orbit. First, a power and propulsion element will launch in 2022. Then, the crew module will launch (without a crew) in 2023. In 2024, during the months leading up to the crewed landing, NASA will launch the last critical components: a transfer vehicle that will ferry landers from the Gateway to a lower lunar orbit, a descent module that will bring the astronauts to the lunar surface, and an ascent module that will bring them back up to the transfer vehicle, which will then return them to the Gateway." 
  16. ↑ "Artemis III: NASA’s First Human Mission to the Lunar South Pole - NASA" (in en-US). 2023-01-13. https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-iii/. 
  17. ↑ Grush 2019, "Now, for Artemis 3 that carries our crew to the Gateway, we need to have the crew have access to a lander. So, that means that at Gateway we're going to have the Power and Propulsion Element, which will be launched commercially, the Utilization Module, which will be launched commercially, and then we'll have a lander there..
  18. ↑ Grush 2019, "The direction that we have right now is that the next man and the first woman will be Americans and that we will land on the south pole of the Moon in 2024.".
  19. ↑ Chang, Kenneth (May 25, 2019). "For Artemis Mission to Moon, NASA Seeks to Add Billions to Budget". https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/science/trump-nasa-moon-mars.html. "Under the NASA plan, a mission to land on the moon would take place during the third launch of the Space Launch System. Astronauts, including the first woman to walk on the moon, Mr. Bridenstine said, would first stop at the orbiting lunar outpost. They would then take a lander to the surface near its south pole, where frozen water exists within the craters." 
  20. ↑ Foust, Jeff (July 21, 2019). "NASA outlines plans for lunar lander development through commercial partnerships". SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/nasa-outlines-plans-for-lunar-lander-development-through-commercial-partnerships/. 
  21. ↑ "Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX)". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/missions/atrex.html. 
  22. ↑ "ATREX Launch Sequence". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/627738main_atrex-launch-sequence.pdf. 
  23. ↑ "SHIELDS Up! NASA Rocket to Survey Our Solar System's Windshield". April 15, 2021. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/shields-up-nasa-rocket-to-survey-our-solar-system-s-windshield. 
  24. ↑ "NPP Launch Information". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/launch/index.html. 
  25. ↑ "Jason-1". https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/jason1/. 
  26. ↑ "OSTM/Jason-2". https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/ostmjason2/. 
  27. ↑ "Jason 3". https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/jason3. /
  28. ↑ "Landsat Missions Timeline – Landsat Missions". http://landsat.usgs.gov/about_mission_history.php. 
  29. ↑ "RBSP Mission Overview". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/rbsp/. 
  30. ↑ "RBSP". NASA/APL. http://rbsp.jhuapl.edu/. 
  31. ↑ "Missions – Science Mission Directorate". https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/missions/. 
  32. ↑ "JWST Home Page". NASA. http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/. 
  33. ↑ "10-Year Plan for Astrophysics Takes JWST Cost into Account". SpaceNews.com. 2010-08-20. http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100820-plan-astrophysics-jwst-account.html. 
  34. ↑ "Explorer Missions". NASA. http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions.html. 
  35. ↑ Clark, Stephen (2012-04-03). "Launch of NASA X-ray telescope targeted for June". Spaceflight Now. http://spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/nustar/120403june/. 
  36. ↑ "NuSTAR". NASA. 2012-06-05. https://science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. 
  37. ↑ "INCUS". https://science.nasa.gov/mission/incus/. Retrieved 30 September 2024. 
  38. ↑ "MMS Launch". NASA. 2013-11-06. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mms/launch/index.html. 
  39. ↑ "NASA Selects Science Investigations for Solar Probe Plus". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/sunearthsystem/main/solarprobeplus.html. 
  40. ↑ "Johns Hopkins APL Team Developing Solar Probe Plus for Closest-Ever Flights Past the Sun". JHU APL. http://jhuapl.edu/newscenter/pressreleases/2012/120305.asp. 
  41. ↑ Karen C. Fox (2011-02-22). "Launching Balloons in Antarctica". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/barrel-antarctica.html. 
  42. ↑ "Van Allen Probes: NASA Renames Radiation Belt Mission to Honor Pioneering Scientist". Reuters. Science Daily. November 11, 2012. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121111101748.htm. 
  43. ↑ "GRAIL Mission: Fact Sheet". MoonKAM.UCSD.edu. https://moonkam.ucsd.edu/about/grail_fact_sheet. 
  44. ↑ "Juno Mission to Jupiter". NASA. April 2009. pp. 2. http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/316306main_JunoFactSheet_2009sm.pdf. 
  45. ↑ "NASA, ULA Launch Lucy Mission to 'Fossils' of Planet Formation" (Press release). NASA. October 16, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  46. ↑ "NASA To Launch New Science Mission To Asteroid In 2016". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/may/HQ_11-163_New_Frontier.html. 
  47. ↑ "NASA's OSIRIS-REx Speeds Toward Asteroid Rendezvous". NASA. 2016-09-08. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-osiris-rex-speeds-toward-asteroid-rendezvous. 

Bibliography



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