List of NASA missions
This is a list of NASA missions, both manned and unmanned, since its establishment in 1958.
Contents |
[edit] Human spaceflight
- See also: NASA - Manned missions
NASA has successfully launched over 100 manned flights. Three have ended in failure, causing the death of the crew, such as Apollo 1 in 1967, STS-51-L (the Challenger disaster) in 1986, and STS-107 (the Columbia disaster) in 2003:
| Program | Start Date | End Date | No. of launched crewed missions |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury program | 1959 | 1963 | 6 | First U.S. crewed program |
| Gemini program | 1963 | 1966 | 10 | Program used to practice space rendezvous and EVAs |
| Apollo program | 1961 | 1972 | 111 | Brought first human to the Moon |
| Skylab | 1973 | 1974 | 3 | The crewed missions only took place in 1973 and 1974; first American space station |
| Apollo-Soyuz | 1975 | 1975 | 1 | Joint with Soviet Union |
| Space Shuttle | 1981 | 2011 | 135 | First missions in which a spacecraft was reused |
| Shuttle-Mir Program | 1995 | 1998 | 92 | Russian partnership |
| International Space Station | 1998 | On-going | 29 | Joint with Russia, Canada, ESA, and JAXA along with co-operators, ASI and AEB |
| Project Constellation | Cancelled | Cancelled[1] | 0 | Future program to once again bring humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond |
Notes:
1. Apollo 1 was unlaunched due to a fire during testing that killed the astronauts, and is not counted here.
2. The Shuttle-Mir missions were all Space Shuttle missions, and are also counted under the Space Shuttle program missions in the table.
[edit] Future
On May 7, 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 will be conducted by a blue-ribbon panel of experts led by Norman Augustine, the former CEO of Lockheed Martin, who served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology under Democrat and Republican presidents.
The "Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans" is 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 will work closely with NASA and will seek input from the United States Congress, the White House, the public, industry, and international partners as it develops its options. It is to present its results in time to support an Administration decision on the way forward by August 2009.[2]
In February 2010, Obama announced he proposes to cancel the Constellation Program as part of the 2011 Economic Projects to goal the USA to be booming by 2020. Constellation was officially cancelled by the NASA Budget Authorization Act on 11 October 2010.
[edit] Unmanned missions
[edit] Lunar missions
[edit] Mars missions
- Mariner 4
- Mariner 6 and 7
- Mariner 9
- Mars Exploration Rovers – (Spirit and Opportunity rovers)
- Mars Global Surveyor
- Mars Odyssey
- Mars Pathfinder – (Sojourner rover)
- Mars Polar Lander
- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
- Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) – (Curiosity rover) – planned arrival at Mars in August 2012[4]
- Phoenix
- Viking program
[edit] Asteroidal/cometary missions
[edit] Interplanetary missions
- Cassini–Huygens – Saturn and its moons
- Dawn – Vesta in 2011-2012, and Ceres in 2014
- Galileo – Jupiter and its moons
- Juno Spacecraft Mission – Jupiter-bound for polar orbit in 2016[5]
- Magellan – Venus orbiter
- Mariner program – Venus, Mars, and first to Mercury
- MESSENGER – Mercury
- New Horizons – Pluto and its moons in 2015
- Pioneer 5 – interplanetary space between Earth and Venus
- Pioneer 6, 7, 8, and 9 – Solar wind, solar magnetic field and cosmic rays
- Pioneer 10 – first to the asteroid belt and Jupiter
- Pioneer 11 – asteroid belt and Jupiter, first to Saturn
- Pioneer Venus project
- Voyager 1 – Jupiter, Saturn
- Voyager 2 – Jupiter, Saturn, first to Uranus and Neptune
[edit] Sun observing missions
- Solar Maximum Mission
- SOHO – ESA partnership
- Ulysses – ESA partnership
- STEREO
- Solar Dynamics Observatory
- Genesis (spacecraft)
[edit] Earth satellites
[edit] Earth Observing System
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[edit] Landsat
[edit] Great Observatories program
- Hubble Space Telescope – ESA partnership
- Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
- Chandra X-ray Observatory
- Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, SIRTF)
[edit] Small Explorer program
Small Explorer (SMEX) individual mission cost not to exceed $120 million.[9]
- Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM)
- Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST)
- Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
- Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX)
- Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) – Sun observing, Earth satellite
- Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX)
- Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS)
- Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) – Sun observing, Earth satellite
- Wide Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE)
[edit] Planned missions
- James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – ESA partnership – launch scheduled for 2014[10][11]
- Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) – launch expected late 2012[12]
- Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) – launch scheduled for February 3, 2012 [13]
- Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) – launch scheduled for 2016[14]
[edit] Cancelled missions
- Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby (CRAF)
- Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO)
- Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (MAX-C)
- Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO)
- Pluto Kuiper Express (PLUTOKE) – replaced by New Horizons
[edit] See also
- Space exploration
- Timeline of Solar System exploration
- When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions – 2008 documentary covering NASA's mission history.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.spacenews.com/civil/100930-house-gives-final-approval-nasa-authorization-act.html
- ^ OSTP Press Release Announcing Review (pdf, 50k)
- ^ "GRAIL Mission: Fact Sheet". MoonKAM.UCSD.edu. https://moonkam.ucsd.edu/about/grail_fact_sheet. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
- ^ "MSL Fact Sheet" (Press release). NASA Facts. March 2011. http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/pdfs/MSL_Fact_Sheet.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
- ^ "Juno Mission to Jupiter". NASA. 04/09. pp. 2. http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/316306main_JunoFactSheet_2009sm.pdf. Retrieved April 5, 2011.
- ^ http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/missions/
- ^ "NPP Launch Information". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/launch/index.html. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
- ^ Landsat Missions Timeline
- ^ "Explorer Missions". NASA. http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov/missions.html. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
- ^ "JWST Home Page". NASA. http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
- ^ "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. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
- ^ "Landsat Data Continuity Mission". USGS. http://landsat.usgs.gov/about_ldcm.php. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
- ^ "NuSTAR". NASA. http://science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Retrieved 2011-07-16.
- ^ "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. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
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