Space Missions & Telescopes
Spacecraft, rovers, telescopes, and the exploration of space
Astronomy: ALMA
ALMA The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation ...
Astronomy: Apollo 11
Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon, and the fifth crewed mission of NASA's Apollo program. The mission was crewed by Commander Ne...
Astronomy: Apollo 13
Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 11–17, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on Apri...
Astronomy: Arecibo Observatory
Arecibo Observatory The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) and formerly known as the Arecibo Ionosphere Observatory, is an observatory in Barrio Es...
Astronomy: Artemis Program
Artemis Program The Artemis program is a Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), aimed at returning humans to the Moon for the first t...
Astronomy: Cassini-Huygens
Cassini-Huygens Cassini–Huygens ( kə-SEE-nee HOY-gənz), commonly called Cassini, was a joint space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to sen...
Astronomy: Chandra X-ray Observatory
Chandra X-ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the Space Shutt...
Astronomy: Curiosity Rover
Curiosity Rover Curiosity is a Mars rover that is exploring Gale crater and Mount Sharp on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. Launched in 2011 and landed the following year...
Astronomy: Dawn Mission
Dawn Mission Dawn is a retired space probe that was launched by NASA in September 2007 with the mission of studying two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt: Vesta and Ceres. In the f...
Astronomy: Event Horizon Telescope
Event Horizon Telescope The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes. The EHT project combines data from several very-long-baseline interf...
Astronomy: Gemini Program
Gemini Program Project Gemini (IPA: ) was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. It was conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo ...
Astronomy: Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, b...
Astronomy: Ingenuity Helicopter
Ingenuity Helicopter Ingenuity, nicknamed Ginny, is an autonomous NASA helicopter that operated on Mars from 2021 to 2024 as part of the Mars 2020 mission. Ingenuity made its first flight on 19 April...
Astronomy: International Space Station
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station in low Earth orbit (LEO). It is the product of the International Space Station program and is operated by five par...
Astronomy: James Webb Space Telescope
James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. It is the largest telescope in space, and is equipped with high-resolutio...
Astronomy: Juno Mission
Juno Mission Juno is a NASA space probe orbiting the planet Jupiter. Built by Lockheed Martin and operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air For...
Astronomy: Kepler Space Telescope
Kepler Space Telescope The Kepler space telescope is an inactive space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler,...
Astronomy: LIGO
LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves. Prior to LIGO, all data about th...
Astronomy: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to search for the existence of water on Mars and provide support for missions to Mars, as part of NASA's Mar...
Astronomy: New Horizons
New Horizons New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. It was launched in 2006, becoming the first spacecraft to perform a flyby study of the P...
Astronomy: Parker Solar Probe
Parker Solar Probe The Parker Solar Probe (PSP; previously Solar Probe, Solar Probe Plus or Solar Probe+) is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 to make observations of the Sun's outer corona. It use...
Astronomy: Perseverance Rover
Perseverance Rover Perseverance is a NASA rover that has been exploring Mars since February 18, 2021, as part of the Mars 2020 mission. Built and managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it was laun...
Astronomy: Rosetta Mission
Rosetta Mission Rosetta was a space probe built by the European Space Agency that launched on 2 March 2004. Along with Philae, its lander module, Rosetta performed a detailed study of comet 67P/Chury...
Astronomy: SOHO
SOHO The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft built by a European industrial consortium led by Matra Marconi Space (now Airbus Defence and Space) that...
Astronomy: Skylab
Skylab Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA, occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2...
Astronomy: Space Shuttle Program
Space Shuttle Program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine trans...
Astronomy: SpaceX Crew Dragon
SpaceX Crew Dragon Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS)...
Astronomy: Spitzer Space Telescope
Spitzer Space Telescope The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope that was active between 2003 and 2020. Spitzer was the thi...
Astronomy: Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (, Russian: Спутник-1, Satellite 1), often referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Sovi...
Astronomy: TESS
TESS Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that co...
Astronomy: Very Large Telescope
Very Large Telescope The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Ch...
Astronomy: Vostok 1
Vostok 1 Vostok 1 (Russian: Восток, lit. 'East' or 'Orient') was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first human orbital spaceflight in history....
Astronomy: Voyager 1
Voyager 1 Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program, to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It...
Astronomy: Voyager 2
Voyager 2 Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and enabled fur...