Space exploration archive
This archive of space missions is not currently being updated.
- See our list of links to other websites which provide up-to-date astronomy news, or browse our list of other useful astronomy, space and time websites
- Keep up to date with the Royal Observatory blog including a monthly guide to the night sky
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Information on Ulysses, the joint ESA/NASA mission exploring space above the poles of the Sun.
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In July 2005 the NASA spacecraft Deep Impact watched as a projectile made the first controlled collision with a comet. -
The first mission to Pluto, NASA's 'New Horizons' probe, was launched on 19 January 2006. -
Launched in January 2006, 'New Horizons' will explore Pluto and its three moons. -
November and December 1998 saw the launch of the first two modules of the International Space Station. -
The Russian space station Mir (meaning 'Peace') was launched in 1986 by the then Soviet Union. -
Galileo was a NASA spacecraft mission to Jupiter, launched October 1989, operating until September 2003. -
The satellite HIPPARCOS, developed by the European Space Agency was the first ever 'astrometric' satellite. -
The Stardust probe was the first mission to collect dust and carbon-based samples from a comet and return them to Earth. -
NASA's Genesis probe was the first attempt to collect samples of the solar wind and return them to Earth. -
Iridium was a telecommunications company which used small satellites to provide a mobile system which could work anywhere on the Earth’s surface.
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In 2010, the GAIA spacecraft will begin to produce a three-dimensional map of the stars in the Milky Way. -
Launched in October 2002, Integral is ESA’s first gamma ray observatory. -
In 1997 an ambitious voyage began with the launch of the joint NASA-ESA mission Cassini-Huygens. -
In 2008 NASA launched the Kepler mission, a space-based observatory to look for Earth-like planets. -
DSP is a joint mission between ESA and CNSA to study the effects of the Sun on the Earth's magnetosphere. -
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a spacecraft investigating the Sun. -
Venus Express, Europe's first mission to our nearest planetary neighbour, reached its final orbit on 7 May 2006. -
ESA launched the Rosetta probe in 2004, to study the surface of a comet at close range. -
The European-built probe 'Mars Express' is in low-orbit around Mars. -
In 2008 the European Space Agency (ESA) launched a probe to Mercury, scheduled to arrive in 2019. -
The High-Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-2) satellite was launched in October 2000. -
Messenger is a NASA probe en route to Mercury. It should enter orbit around the planet in March 2011. -
In 1999 'Galileo' gave clear views of Callisto, revealing a landscape of ice and dust on one of the oldest surfaces in the Solar system.
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The British-made probe Beagle 2 was declared lost in January 2004. The probe was due to land on Mars on Christmas morning 2003. -
The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn found lakes near the north pole of the largest moon, Titan. -
The European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Mars Express has discovered a layer of water ice deep beneath the surface of Mars. -
After several delays and a wait of over a year, the space shuttle Discovery took off on 4 July 2006. -
On 17 July 2006, the shuttle Discovery landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center after 13 days in space. -
After a 2-year mission to the Moon, the SMART-1 probe crashed into the lunar surface at 0642 BST on 3 September 2006. -
In 2006 the Mars Express probe imaged the Cydonia region of Mars solving the mystery of the legendary ‘face’. -
Images from the Cassini probe show a previously unknown ring of icy material around Saturn. -
In 2006 the NASA probe Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the robotic rover Opportunity on the edge of the Victoria Crater on Mars.