Missions

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.

› Overview
› Satellite home page

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.

› Overview
› Instrument home page

Aquarius

Launch: April 1, 2011

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.

› Mission home page

Launch: May 4, 2002

This instrument flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite to make highly accurate measurements of air temperature, humidity, clouds and surface temperatures.

› Overview
› Instrument home page

Launch: October 15,1997

A joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, Cassini arrived at Saturn in June 2004 carrying a record number of 12 instruments. The mission is an intensive study of Saturn's rings, its moons and magnetosphere. Cassini released the Huygens probe towards Saturn's largest moon, Titan and the probe successfully landed on the moon's surface in January 2005.

› Overview
› Cassini home page

Launch: April 28, 2006

CloudSat is the first satellite that uses an advanced radar to "slice" through clouds to see their vertical structure. Their data will contribute to better predictions of clouds and their role in climate change.

› Overview
› CloudSat home page

Launch: September 27, 2007

Dawn, the first spacecraft ever planned to orbit two different bodies after leaving Earth, will orbit Vesta and Ceres, two of the largest asteroids in the solar system.

› Overview
› Dawn home page

Launch: January 12, 2005

Deep Impact traveled to comet Tempel 1 and deployed an impactor that was essentially "run over" by the nucleus of Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005.

› Overview
› Deep Impact home page

Launch: October 24, 1998

Unlike missions focused on science investigations, Deep Space 1 was 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.

› Overview
› Deep Space 1 home page

Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of ICE

Proposed Launch: October 2017

A dedicated U.S. mission using the combined advanced radar technologies of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture and Light Detection and Ranging, optimized for studying hazards and global environmental change.

› Mission home page

Launch: January 12, 2005

The Epoxi mission recycles the already "in flight" Deep Impact spacecraft to investigate two distinct celestial targets of opportunity. In 2008, Epoxi observed five nearby stars with "transiting extrasolar planets," and later, on Nov. 4, 2010, the spacecraft will fly by and investigate comet Hartley 2.

› Overview
› Epoxi home page

Launch: 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.

› Overview
› Explorer 1 home page

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.

› Overview
› Galex home page

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. The orbiter then 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.

› Overview
› Galileo home page

Launch: August 8, 2001

Genesis collected samples of charged particles in the solar wind and returned them to Earth in September 2004. Although the capsule's parachutes did not deploy, scientists expect to be able to achieve most of their science objectives with samples recovered from the capsule.

› Overview
› Genesis home page

Launch: March 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.

› Overview
› Grace home page

Launch: September 8, 2011

The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, mission will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon for three months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail.
› Overview
› Mission site

Launch: May 9, 2003

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa has several mission goals. One is to test new technologies, including the ion engine. It is also supposed to bring back samples of an asteroid.

› Overview
› Hayabusa website

Herschel Space Observatory

Launch: May 14, 2009

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. JPL is making significant contributions to instruments on this European Space Agency mission.

› JPL's Herschel site
› NASA's Herschel site

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.

› Overview

Launch: December 7, 2001

This oceanography mission is a follow-up to Topex/Poseidon and monitors global ocean circulation, discovers the tie between the oceans and atmosphere, improves global climate predictions, and monitors events such as El Niño.

› Overview
› Jason home page

Launch: August 5, 2011

This mission will conduct an in-depth study of the giant gas planet Jupiter.

› Overview
› Related news release

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.

› Overview
› Telescope home page

Kepler

Launch: March 6, 2009

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

First Light: To be determined

Two 8-meter (26-foot) telescopes on Mount Graham, Arizona will be connected. The ground-based telescope 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.

› Overview
› Planetquest mission description

Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

Proposed Launch: To be determined

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

Launch: June 18, 2009

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will conduct investigations that will prepare and support future human exploration of the moon. Onboard is the JPL-built Diviner instrument.

› Overview

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.

› Overview
› Archived Magellan site

Mariner 1 launch: July 22, 1962
Mariner 2 launch: 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.

› Overview

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.

› Overview

Mariner 3 launch: November 5 1964
Mariner 4 launch: November 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.

› Overview

Launch: June 14, 1967

Originally a backup Mars craft, Mariner 5 was redirected to Venus, flying within 4,000 kilometers (approximately 2,500 miles) of that planet.

› Overview

Mariner 6 launch: February 24, 1969
Mariner 7 launch: February 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.

› Overview

Mariner 8 launch: May 8, 1971
Mariner 9 launch: May 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.

› Overview

Launch: December 11, 1998

Mars Climate Orbiter, designed to function as an interplanetary weather satellite, was lost on arrival at the planet.

› Overview
› Mars exploration

Launch of Spirit: June 10, 2003
Launch of Opportunity: July 7, 2003

In April 2004, two mobile robots named Spirit and Opportunity successfully completed their primary three-month missions on opposite sides of Mars and went into bonus overtime work.

› Overview
› Rover home page

Launch: November 7,1996

This orbiter studied the entire Martian surface, atmosphere and interior, and has returned more data about the red planet than all previous Mars missions combined. Among key science findings so far, Global Surveyor took 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.

› Overview
› Surveyor home page

Launch: September 25, 1992

This Mars orbiter was lost shortly before arrival at the red planet.

› Overview
› Mars exploration

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.

› Overview
› Odyssey home page

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.

› Overview
› Archived Pathfinder site

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.

› Overview
› Archived Deep Space 2 site

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Launch: August 10, 2005

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has the most powerful telescopic camera ever to another planet, plus five other scientific instruments.

› Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter home page
› Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter fact sheet

Mars Science Laboratory

Launch: November 25, 2011 (Launch window is Nov. 25 to Dec.18)

NASA proposes to develop and to launch a roving long-range, long-duration science laboratory that will be a major leap in surface measurements and pave the way for a future sample return mission.

› Mission description
› Mission home page

Launch: March 2, 2004

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. While Rosetta orbits the comet, JPL's Microwave Instrument onboard the spacecraft will study gases given off by the comet. In addition, a package of instruments will set down and study the surface of the comet.

› Overview
› Rosetta home page

Launch: July 15, 2004

This instrument, which flies aboard NASA's Aura spacecraft, is designed to improve our understanding of ozone, especially how it is depleted by processes of chlorine chemistry.

› Overview
› Instrument home page

Mid Infrared instrument on James Webb Space Telescope

Launch: 2013

JPL is managing the development of the Mid Infrared Instrument, one of the three focal plane istruments on the James Webb Space Telescope, a large, infrared-optimized space telescope.

› Overview
› Instrument home page
› James Webb Space Telescope site

Mission to Mars

Proposed Launch: To be determined

A proposed mission to bring a geological sample back from Mars to Earth is under consideration.

› Mars Exploration Site

Moon Mineralogy Mapper

Launch: Oct. 22, 2008

The JPL-managed Moon Mineralogy Mapper is one of two instruments that NASA is contributing to India's first mission to the moon. The instrument is a state-of-the-art high spectral resolution imaging spectrometer that will characterize and map the mineral composition of the moon. The Moon Mineralogy Mapper is aboard Chandrayaan-1.

› Instrument home page

MoonRise

Proposed Launch: To be determined

MoonRise would land in the interior of the SPA Basin at a location determined by analysis of existing orbital data and selected using criteria for science and mission safety. MoonRise would document the geologic context of the landing site with high-resolution and multispectral surface imaging, and would sieve a volume of soil near the lander to collect thousands of rock fragments. Sample materials would be returned to Earth for mineralogical and chemical analyses, and isotopic age determinations in state-of- the-art laboratories. MoonRise samples would be made available for study by the scientific community worldwide.

› Mission home page

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.

› Overview
› Instrument home page

Launch: August 17, 1996

This ocean-observing satellite carried an instrument called a scatterometer, which operated by sending radar pulses to the ocean surface and measuring the "backscattered" or echoed radar pulses bounced back to the satellite.

› Overview

Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array

Launch: Spring 2012

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is a pathfinder mission that will study the sky through high energy X-rays.

› Overview

Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2

Launch: June 20, 2008

This mission is a follow-on to the Jason-1 mission.

› Mission homepage

Orbiting Carbon Observatory

Launch: Feb. 24, 2009

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite failed to reach orbit after its Feb. 24, 2009, liftoff from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

› News release

Palomar Observatory

First light: December 1998

A joint effort between JPL and the California Institute of Technology, the Palomar Observatory near San Diego houses a collection of famous telescopes, including the Hale 200-inch and Samuel Oschin 48-inch telescopes. The Palomar Adaptive Optics System, built by JPL and Caltech, corrects for the atmospheric blur of astronomical targets caused by turbulence in Earth's atmosphere. This system's camera was built by Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

› Palomar Observatory home page

Launch: August 4, 2007

In the continuing pursuit of water on Mars, the poles are a good place to probe, as water ice is found there. This mission sent a high-latitude lander to Mars where it is using its robotic arm to dig trenches up to half a meter (1.6 feet) into layers of soil and water ice.

› Overview
› JPL Phoenix site
› University of Arizona Phoenix Site

Pioneer 3 Launch: December 6, 1958
Pioneer 4 Launch: 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.

› Overview

Planck

Launch: May 14, 2009

Planck is a European Space Agency project to study the cosmic background. JPL is providing the following instrumentation: most or all of the detectors, both of the bolometers in the "high frequency" instrument and the heterodyne receivers in the "low frequency" instrument.

› NASA's Planck site

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.

› Overview
› Instrument home page

Launches: 1961-1965

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.

› Overview

Launch: June 28, 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.

› Overview

Launch: December 13, 2002

This scatterometer instrument, called SeaWinds, was launched on a Japanese satellite but that satellite stopped functioning later that year.

› Overview
› Instrument home page

Launches: November 12, 1981; October 5, 1984; April 9, 1994; September 30, 1994; February 11, 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.

› Overview
› Radar home page

Launches: 1981-1998

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.

› Overview

Shuttle Radar Topography Mission

Launch: February 11, 2000

On a 11-day flight aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission 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.

› Shuttle Radar Topography Mission home page

Launch: TBD

The SIM Lite Astrometric Observatory (formerly called the Space Interferometry Mission), currently under development, will determine the positions and distances of stars several hundred times more accurately than any previous program. This accuracy will allow SIM Lite to determine the distances to stars throughout the galaxy and to probe nearby stars for Earth-sized planets.

› Overview
› Mission home page

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

Soil Moisture Active Passive

Launch: 2010-2013

Soil Moisture Active Passive mission will use a combined radiometer and high-resolution radar to measure surface soil moisture and freeze-thaw state, providing new opportunities for scientific advances and societal benefits.

› Mission home page

Launch: October 6, 1981

This satellite investigated the processes that create and destroy ozone in Earth's upper atmosphere.

› Overview

Space Technology 6

Launch: October 2004

The New Millennium Program's Space Technology 6 Project has validated two advanced, experimental technologies that will free the spacecraft of the future from their need for a continuous link with the ground.

› Mission home page
› New Millennium Program

Space Technology 7

Launch: 2009-2010

JPL manages a technology to fly on the European Lisa Pathfinder mission.

› Mission home page
› New Millennium Program

Space Technology 8

Launch: 2009

As a mission of NASA's New Millennium Program, Space Technology 8 will space validate four new subsystem-level technologies. Each of these technologies was selected for its promise in advancing NASA's most important future science missions.

› Mission home page
› New Millennium Program

Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry (Space VLBI)

Launch: 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

Launch: August 25, 2003

This spaceborne telescope uses infrared technology to study celestial objects that are too cool, too dust-enshrouded or too far away to otherwise be seen. Spitzer, along with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, is part of NASA's Great Observatories Program.

› Overview
› Telescope home page

Launch: February 7, 1999

The Stardust spacecraft successfully flew through the cloud of dust that surrounds the nucleus of comet Wild-2 and gathered a sample of cometary material. The Stardust return capsule landed in January 2006 carrying the collected particles.

› Overview
› Stardust home page
› Stardust-NExT mission description

Launch: February 7, 1999

The Stardust-NExT mission recycles the already "in flight" Stardust spacecraft to flyby and investigate comet Tempel 1 in Feb. 2011. The mission will update the data gathered in 2005 on Tempel 1 by the Deep Impact mission. Prior to its tasking for Tempel 1, the Stardust spacecraft successfully flew through the cloud of dust that surrounds the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in Jan. 2004. The particles of cometary material and gathered during this flyby where then returned to Earth aboard a sample return capsule which landed in the Utah desert in January 2006.

› Overview
› Stardust-NExT home page

Surface and Atmosphere Geochemical Explorer

Proposed Launch: 2016

NASA recommended three high-priority, medium-class investigations as candidate missions to be implemented through NASA's "New Frontiers" Program for launch in 2016. One of the recommended investigations includes the Surface and Atmosphere Geochemical Explorer (SAGE), a Venus lander that would study the history of Venus's surface, climate and atmosphere and predict its fate within the future of the Solar System. SAGE would be constructed to survive the harsh conditions on Venus for three hours or more. The surface pressure is 100 times that of Earth and its temperature is similar to that of a self-cleaning oven.

› Mission home page

Launches: 1966-1968

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.

› Overview

Proposed Launch: To be determined

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.

› Overview
› Mission home page

Launch: August 10, 1992

A joint effort between NASA and France's National Center for Space Studies, this satellite measured sea level every 10 days. This mission allowed 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.

› Overview
› Mission home page

Launch: July 15, 2004

This instrument, which flies aboard NASA's Aura spacecraft, is an infrared sensor designed to study Earth's troposphere -- the lowest region of our atmosphere -- and look at ozone.

› Overview
› Instrument home page

Launch: October 6, 1990

A joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency, Ulysses for the first time sent a spacecraft out of the ecliptic - the plane in which Earth and other planets orbit the sun - to study the sun's north and south poles. The spacecraft, which operated for more than 18 years, ceased operations on June 30, 2009.

› Overview
› Ulysses home page

First Data Collection Flight: September 18, 2007

An imaging radar instrument flown on airplanes and, eventually, uninhabited aerial vehicles to study Earth.

› Overview
› Mission home page

Viking 1 Launch: August 20, 1975
Viking 2 Launch: 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.

› Overview
› Mars exploration

Voyager 1 launch: September 5, 1977
Voyager 2 launch: August 20, 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.

› Overview
› Project web site

Launches: April 24, 1990; December 2, 1993

These two instruments served for a number of years 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. That camera was returned to Earth in May 2009.

› Overview

Launch: May 4, 1999

The cryogenically cooled infrared telescope onboard this small satellite became unusable shortly after launch.

› Overview

Launch: December 14, 2009

This space-based telescope will scan the entire sky in infrared light, revealing cool stars, planetary construction zones and the brightest galaxies in the universe.

› Overview
› Mission home page