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Space Missions
Our Emissaries Across the Solar System
Earth has launched thousands of spacecraft, but precious few have made it beyond Earth orbit. Currently, 13 spacecraft representing 11 missions are actively gathering science data from planetary destinations. These are MESSENGER at Mercury; Venus Express at Venus; Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, GRAIL, and ARTEMIS at the Moon; Odyssey, Mars Express, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Opportunity at Mars; Dawn at Vesta; and Cassini at Saturn.
Meanwhile, Curiosity is on its way to Mars, Rosetta to a comet, New Horizons to Pluto, and Akatsuki attempting to retry a Venus arrival, while Chang'E 2 and both Voyagers have turned from planetary to heliophysics missions, and IKAROS' condition is unknown. All of these missions follow in the footsteps of dozens of predecessors, the few human-built artifacts ever to have departed Earth.
Recent Mission Status Updates
Opportunity and Curiosity updates: Rolling and drilling and a little wear on the wheels
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/05/20 11:27 CDT | 1 comments
For most of April, while Mars scuttled behind the Sun as seen from Earth, both Mars rovers were pretty inactive. Now that conjunction has ended, both are doing what rovers should be doing: roving and exploring. As of sol 3312 Opportunity had moved more than 300 meters southward toward Solander Point, while on her sol 279 Curiosity drilled at a second site, Cumberland.
New Horizons: Encounter Planning Accelerates
Posted by Alan Stern on 2013/05/17 10:18 CDT | 3 comments
Back in 2005 and 2006, when Pluto’s second and third moons (Nix and Hydra) were discovered, searches by astronomers for still more moons didn’t reveal any. So the accidental discovery of Pluto’s fourth moon by the Hubble Space Telescope in mid-2011 raised the possibility that the hazards in the Pluto system might be greater than previously anticipated.
Space Mission Timelines
A list of key dates and basic facts on all the missions that have explored Venus.
The missions, both successful and failed, that have flown by, orbited, or landed on the Red Planet and its moons
The spacecraft that have traveled to asteroids, outer planets, comets, and beyond
Cassini’s Tour of the Saturn System
13 years, 250 orbits, and 127 gravity-assist flybys – explore the Saturn system with NASA's Cassini mission.
Space mission artwork, snapshots of construction, launches, and photos of spacecraft in space
Spacecraft that study our dynamic Sun and help us understand how it affects our planet.
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