Wednesday, August 10, 2011

NASA LUNAR MISSIONS

Past Missions

  • Apollo

    Apollo

    President Kennedy's bold challenge set the nation on a journey unlike any before in human history--a journey to land on the moon.
  • Astronaut Donald K. Slayton (left) and cosmonaut Alexey A. Leonov visit in the Soyuz Orbital Module. Image Credit: NASA

    Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

    The first international partnership in space wasn't the ISS or even the Shuttle-Mir missions; it was the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.
  • Ares I-X test rocket

    Ares I-X Flight Test

    Ares I-X completes a successful flight test.
  • Constellation Program

    Constellation

    Ares rockets and the Orion crew vehicle.
  • Deep Impact

    Deep Impact

    Exploring Comet Tempel 1 to determine the origins of life in our Solar System.
  • Explorer 1

    Explorer

    America's first artificial satellite.
  • Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST)

    Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) 

    FAST, the second mission in NASA's Small Explorer Satellite Program (SMEX), is a satellite designed to study Earth's aurora.
  • Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) Mission

    Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) Mission 

    FUSE looks at light in the far ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
  • Galileo

    Galileo 

    Journey to Jupiter.
  • Gemini patch

    Gemini

    Bridge to the moon.
  • Genesis

    Genesis Mission

    The search for origins.
  • Glory spacecraft

    Glory

    The Glory mission failed to reach orbit after launch. Telemetry indicated the fairing did not separate as expected.
  • Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE)

    Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE)

    IMAGE is a mission to study the global response of the magnetosphere to the changes in solar wind.
  • Space Shuttle Discovery

    International Space Station

    Read more about past missions to the International Space Station.
  • Mars Global Surveyor

    Mars Global Surveyor

    After studying the Red Planet four times longer than originally planned, the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter succumbed to battery failure.
  • Mars Pathfinder

    Mars Pathfinder

    Mars Pathfinder was the first mission to deliver a lander and a free-ranging robotic rover to the surface of Mars.
  • Pressure suit helmet, gloves and boots

    Mercury

    America's First Space Program.
  • artist concept of Orbiting Carbon Observatory

    Orbiting Carbon Observatory

    NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying carbon dioxide, the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth's climate.
  • Phoenix Mars Lander

    Phoenix Mars Lander

    The search for possible conditions for life in the Martian arctic.
  • Pioneer

    Pioneer

    A journey through our solar system and beyond.
  • Pioneer Venus

    Pioneer Venus

    The mission's objective was to investigate the Venus's solar wind, map the planet's surface and study the upper atmosphere.
  • Polar Mission

    Polar Mission

    The Polar Mission was designed to obtain data from both high- and low-altitude perspectives of the polar region of geospace.
  • QuikScat

    QuikScat

    The Quick Scatterometer, or QuikScat, replaces the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) instrument on Japan's Midori satellite.
  • Shuttle-Mir

    Shuttle-Mir

    In the arena of space exploration, the U.S. and Russia share a history of competition and cooperation.
  • Skylab

    Skylab

    America's first space station and orbital science and engineering laboratory.
  • Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) Mission

    Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) Mission

    SAMPEX studies the energy, composition and charge states of particles from supernova explosions in the distant reaches of the galaxy, from the heart of solar flares and from the depths of nearby interstellar space.
  • Space Shuttle Endeavour

    Space Shuttle

    Read more about past shuttle missions.
  • Space Technology 5

    Space Technology 5

    The Space Technology 5 (ST5) Project built and tested micro-satellites to validate new technologies for future science missions.
  • Stardust

    Stardust

    Exploring Comet Tempel 1
  • TOPEX

    Topex Mission

    The Topex mission will collect information with which scientists can relate changes in ocean currents to atmospheric and climate patterns.
  • Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) Mission

    Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) Mission

    TRACE enables solar physicists to study the connections between fine-scale magnetic fields and the associated plasma structures on the Sun.
  • Viking

    Viking

    The Viking Mission to Mars: Determining whether life ever existed on Mars.
  • UARS

    UARS Mission

    The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), launched in 1991, orbited at an altitude of 375 miles.
  • Ulysses

    Ulysses Mission 

    A mission to study the sun at all latitudes.

    Current Missions

  • Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)

    Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)

    Major mission of the Explorer program.
  • Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM)

    AIM: Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere

    AIM's two-year mission is to study Polar Mesospheric Clouds, the Earth’s highest clouds, which form an icy membrane 50 miles above the surface at the edge of space.
  • Aqua

    Aqua

    Aqua, Latin for water, is a NASA Earth Science satellite mission named for the large amount of information that the mission will be collecting about the Earth's water cycle.
  • Aquarius/SAC-D Artist's Concept

    Aquarius

    The Aquarius/SAC-D mission launched on June 10, 2011 on a mission to map ocean salinity.
  • Arctic sea ice

    ARCTAS

    Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites
  • artist concept of ARTEMIS

    ARTEMIS

    ARTEMIS: Studying the Moon's Interaction With the Sun
  • Astro-E2/Suzaku

    Astro-E2/Suzaku

    The Suzaku mission is a joint effort of JAXA and NASA designed to discover more about the x-ray universe.
  • Aura Mission

    Aura Mission

    A mission dedicated to the health of Earth's atmosphere.
  • Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO)

    CALIPSO

    CALIPSO will provide the next generation of climate observations, drastically improving our ability to predict climate change and to study the air we breathe.
  • Cassini

    Cassini-Huygens Mission

    Unlocking the secrets of Saturn.
  • Chandra X-ray Observatory

    Chandra X-ray Observatory

    NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory probes the mysteries of space with unprecedented x-ray images that help to unravel the structure and evolution of the universe.
  • Model of CNOFS

    CINDI

    CINDI will study the elements that influence space weather near Earth's equator.
  • CloudSat

    CloudSat

    CloudSat's cloud-profiling radar is 1,000 times more sensitive than typical weather radar and can detect clouds and distinguish between cloud particles and precipitation.
  • Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS)

    Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS)

    CHIPS uses an extreme ultraviolet spectrograph to study the "Local Bubble" surrounding our Solar System.
  • Cluster ESA/NASA Mission

    Cluster ESA/NASA Mission

    The four Cluster spacecraft carry out 3D measurements in the Earth's Magnetosphere.
  • Dawn

    Dawn

    Dawn launched in September, becoming the first spacecraft ever planned to orbit two different bodies after leaving Earth. The spacecraft will orbit Vesta and Ceres, two of the largest asteroids in the solar system.
  • Earth Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (EP-TOMS)

    Earth Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (EP-TOMS)

    Earth Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (EP-TOMS), along with the Ozone Monitoring Instrument onboard AURA, are currently the only NASA spacecraft on orbit specializing in ozone retrieval.
  • Earth Observing Mission, EO-1

    Earth Observing-1

    As the first New Millennium Program Earth Observing Mission, EO-1 has validated advanced land imaging and unique spacecraft technologies.
  • EPOXI

    EPOXI

    NASA's EPOXI mission successfully flew by comet Hartley 2 at about 10 a.m. EDT, Nov. 4, 2010. Hartley 2 is the fifth comet nucleus visited by a spacecraft.
  • Southern California wildfire image

    Fire and Smoke

    NASA satellites, aircraft, and research know-how have created a wealth of cutting-edge tools to help firefighters battle wildfires.
  • Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)

    GALEX

    Mapping the history of star formation in the universe.
    › Galaxy Evolution Explorer
  • The Gamma-ray Large Space Telescope

    GLAST Launches on Gamma Ray Mission

    The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope will answer questions about supermassive black hole systems, pulsars and the origin of cosmic rays.
  • Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites

    Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES)

    GOES-N is the latest in a series of satellites that provide a constant vigil for the atmospheric "triggers" for severe weather conditions such as tornadoes and hurricanes.
  • Artist's concept of GOES-O in orbit

    GOES-O

    The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-O represents the newest generation of environmental satellites.
  • artist concept of GOES-P

    GOES-P

    The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-P represents the newest generation of environmental satellites.
  • Geotail Mission

    Geotail Mission 

    A mission to study the tail of Earth's magnetosphere.
  • Gravity Probe B

    Gravity Probe B

    This mission is the relativity gyroscope experiment developed by NASA and Stanford University to test two unverified predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
  • Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

    Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment

    The twin satellites are making detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field to learn more about gravity and Earth's natural systems.
  • Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory

    GRAIL

    The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission will create the most accurate gravitational map of the moon to date.
  • Hayabusa (MUSES-C)

    Hayabusa (MUSES-C)

    Hayabusa (MUSES-C) is Japan's asteroid sample return mission.
  • Herschel

    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.
  • High Energy Transient Explorer-2 (HETE-2) Mission

    High Energy Transient Explorer-2 (HETE-2) Mission 

    HETE-2 is a small scientific satellite designed to detect and localize gamma-ray bursts.
  • Hinode (Solar B)

    Hinode (Solar B)

    A collaboration between the space agencies of Japan, the United States, United Kingdom and Europe, Hinode's mission is to investigate the interaction between the sun's magnetic field and its corona.
  • Hubble Space Telescope

    Hubble Space Telescope

    Learn how Hubble has expanded our knowledge of the cosmos.
  • Hurricane Florence

    Hurricanes

    Latest storm images and data from NASA.
  • IBEX Questions and Answers

    IBEX

    A mission to achieve the first global observations of the region beyond the termination shock at the very edge of our solar system.
  • Ice Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICEsat) Mission

    Ice Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICEsat) Mission

    The ICESat mission will provide multi-year elevation data regarding ice sheet mass balance as well as cloud property information, especially for stratospheric clouds common over polar areas.
  • International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL)

    International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL)

    INTEGRAL is the most sensitive gamma-ray observatory ever launched.
  • Space Shuttle Discovery

    International Space Station

    Aboard the International Space Station, astronauts work to improve life on Earth and extend life beyond our home planet.
  • J-2X rocket engine

    J-2X Engine Development

    J-2X is a highly efficient and versatile rocket engine with the ideal thrust and performance characteristics to power the upper stage of a heavy-lift launch vehicle.
  • Jason

    Jason 

    Jason-1 is the first follow-on to the highly successful TOPEX/Poseidon mission that measured ocean surface topography.
  • Artist concept of Juno. Image credit: NASA/JPL

    Juno

    Beneath its clouds, Jupiter holds secrets about our solar system’s early history. Juno will endeavor to unlock these secretss.
  • Kepler spacecraft

    Kepler

    NASA's search for habitable planets.
  • Landsat

    Landsat

    The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
  • LCROSS

    LCROSS

    The LCROSS mission's objective is to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon's South Pole.
  • Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter

    LRO: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

    The LRO mission objectives are to find safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology.
  • LOLA image of Goddard Crater on the moon.

    Lunar Quest Program

    NASA's Lunar Quest Program is a multi-element program consisting of flight missions, instruments for lunar missions of opportunity, as well as research and analysis efforts.
  • Mars Express

    Mars Express 

    Mission to search for subsurface water from orbit.
  • Mars Exploration Rovers

    Mars Exploration Rovers

    Rovers Spirit and Opportunity explore the Martian landscape.
  • Mars Odyssey

    Mars Odyssey

    This orbiter is mapping the mineralogy and morphology of the Martian surface.
  • Moon Mineralogy Mapper

    Moon Mineralogy Mapper 

    Aboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, whose technology mission has been completed successfully and now embarks on a scientific mission.
  • Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

    Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

    The mission will determine whether long-standing bodies of water ever existed on Mars.
  • Mars Science Laboratory

    Mars Science Laboratory

    Scheduled to launch in the fall of 2011, the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory rover will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's "habitability."
  • Mercury, Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) Mission

    Mercury, Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) Mission

    MESSENGER will study Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.
  • LRO and Chandrayaan-1 collecting strips of data from the lunar poles. Image credit: APL/NASA

    Mini-RF

    The Mini-RF project will fly two radar instruments to the moon to map the lunar poles, search for water ice, and to demonstrate future NASA communication technologies.
  • NEEMO

    NEEMO

    The NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project, provides a convincing analog to space exploration, and its crew experience some of the same challenges underwater as they would in space.
  • New Horizons

    New Horizons

    New Horizons began its journey across the solar system to conduct flyby studies of Pluto and its moon.
  • NOAA Environmental Satellites

    NOAA Environmental Satellites

    NOAA-N is the latest in a series of polar-orbiting satellites, that will collect information to improve weather prediction and climate research across the globe.
  • NOAA-N Prime

    NOAA-N Prime

    NOAA-N Prime will provide a polar-orbiting platform to support environmental monitoring instruments for imaging and measuring Earth's atmosphere and sea surface temperature.
  • NPP

    NPOESS Preparatory Project

    NPOESS Preparatory Project is a first step in building the next-generation of Earth-observing satellites.
  • artist concept of Ocean Surface Topography Mission

    Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2

    The joint NASA-French satellite will help scientists better monitor and understand rises in global sea level, study the world's ocean circulation and its links to Earth's climate.
  • Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf

    Operation Ice Bridge

    Operation Ice Bridge, a six-year NASA field campaign, is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown. It will yield a three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice.
  • Pioneer

    Pioneer

    A journey through our solar system and beyond.
  • Planck

    Planck will provide a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) field.
  • Polar Operational Environmental Satellite

    Polar Operational Environmental Satellite (POES)

    POES is a cooperative effort between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United Kingdom and France.
  • Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI)

    Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI)

    RHESSI's primary mission is to explore the basic physics of particle acceleration and explosive energy release in solar flares.
  • Rosetta

    Rosetta Mission

    Rosetta will orbit comet 67P and accompany it on its journey to the Sun.
  • Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) Mission

    Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) Mission  →

    RXTE is a satellite that observes the fast-moving, high-energy worlds of black holes, neutron stars, X-ray pulsars and bursts of X-rays that light up the sky and then disappear forever.
  • Accumulated rainfall during Panama floods

    SERVIR

    The SERVIR initiative integrates satellite observations, ground-based data and forecast models to monitor and forecast environmental changes.
  • SMART 1

    SMART 1

    SMART 1's two part mission will test new technologies and explore darker regions of the Moon's south pole for the first time.
  • Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)

    SOFIA

    The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy--or SOFIA--is an airborne observatory that will complement the Hubble, Spitzer, Herschel and James Webb space telescopes, as well as major Earth-based telescopes.
  • Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

    Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)

    SOHO, designed to study the sun, from its deep core to its outer corona, is a cooperative program between ESA and NASA.
  • Artist concept of SDO probe

    Solar Dynamics Observatory (sdo)

    The Solar Dynamics Observatory began its mission on Feb. 11, 2010, in an effort to help us understand the sun's influence on Earth.
  • Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment

    Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE)

    A NASA-sponsored satellite mission that will provide state-of-the-art measurements of incoming x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and total solar radiation.
  • STEREO

    Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO)

    STEREO continues its mission to capture 3D images of the sun.
  • Fully deployed, the NanoSailS sail area measures 107 square feet.

    Small Satellite Missions

    Small satellite missions provide NASA with valuable opportunities to test emerging technologies and economical commercial off-the-shelf components, which may be useful in future space missions.
  • Spitzer

    Spitzer Space Telescope

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, studying the universe in infared.
  • Stardust

    Stardust-NExT

    Exploring Comet Tempel 1
  • Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite

    Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS)

    A mission that was designed to study the chemical composition of interstellar gas clouds.
  • Astro-E2/Suzaku

    Suzaku

    The Suzaku mission is a joint effort of JAXA and NASA designed to discover more about the x-ray universe.
  • Swift

    Swift

    The Swift mission seeks to tell us more about gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe.
  • TacSat-2

    TacSat-2

    TacSat-2 features 11 onboard experiments, which will be conducted during the spacecraft’s planned six to 12-month mission.
  • Terra

    Terra

    Terra is a multi-national, multi-disciplinary partnership between the U.S., Canada and Japan that is an important part of helping us better understand and protect our home planet.
  • THEMIS

    THEMIS

    The 2-year mission of Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms (THEMIS) is to track these violent, colorful eruptions near the North Pole.
  • Thermospere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics Mission (TIMED)

    Thermospere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics Mission (TIMED)

    The TIMED mission is studying the influences of the Sun and humans on the least explored region of Earth's atmosphere.
  • artist concept of TDRS

    Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS)

    This system of satellites and ground stations makes up a portion of the Space Network and provides mission services for near Earth satellites and orbiting vehicles.
  • Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4)

    Tropical Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling (TC4)

    The TC4 study will tackle challenging questions about Earth's ozone layer and climate using coordinated observations from satellites and high-flying NASA airplanes.
  • TRMM

    Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 

    TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall.
  • Voyager

    Voyager - The Interstellar Mission

    Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 journey to study the region in space where the Sun's influence ends and the dark recesses of interstellar space begin.
  • WISE Launch

    WISE: Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

    WISE will study the solar system, Milky Way and universe. Among the objects WISE will study are asteroids, the coolest and dimmest stars and the most luminous galaxies.
  • WMAP

    Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)

    A mission to take the first full sky picture of the early Universe.
  • Wind Mission

    Wind Mission 

    A mission to investigate the solar wind and its impact on the near-Earth environment.
  • XMM-Newton

    XMM-Newton 

    The Mirror Modules on this x-ray observatory allow XMM-Newton to detect millions of sources, far more than any previous X-ray mission.

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