Current Missions
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Voyager, The Interstellar Mission
Launches: August 20 and September 5, 1977
Voyager 1 and 2 flew by Jupiter and Saturn, and Voyager 2 also visited Uranus and Neptune. Both craft are now heading out of our solar system. Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object in space. -
Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
Launches: April 24, 1990; December 2, 1993
These two instruments served as the main camera capturing pictures on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. -
Cassini-Huygens
Launch: October 15, 1997
A joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, Cassini is conducting an intensive study of Saturn's rings, its moons and magnetosphere. -
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. -
Stardust-NExT
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 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. -
Quick Scatterometer
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. -
Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer
Launch: December 18, 1999
This imaging instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite is designed to obtain high-resolution global, regional and local views of Earth in 14 color bands. -
Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer
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. -
Active Cavity Irradiance Monitor Satellite
Launch: December 22, 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. -
Keck Interferometer
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. -
Mars Odyssey
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. -
Jason 1
Launch: December 7, 2001
This oceanography mission is a follow-up to Topex/Poseidon and will monitor global ocean circulation and monitor events such as El Niño. -
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
Launch: Mar. 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. -
Atmospheric Infrared Sounder
Launch: May 4, 2002
This instrument onboard NASA's Aqua satellite makes highly accurate measurements of air temperature, humidity, clouds and surface temperatures. -
Galaxy Evolution Explorer
Launch: Apr. 28, 2003
This mission uses ultraviolet wavelengths to measure the history of star formation. -
Mars Exploration Rovers
First rover launch: June 10, 2003. Second rover launch: July 7, 2003
Two rovers, working on opposite sides of Mars, successfully completed their primary mission in April 2004. As of November 2004, both rovers are now in extended missions. -
Spitzer Space Telescope
Launch: August 25, 2003, ET (August 24 PT)
Formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, Spitzer is using infrared technology to study celestial objects that are hidden from view. The mission is part of NASA's Great Observatories Program. -
Microwave Instrument on the Rosetta Orbiter
Launch: March 2, 2004
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will rendezvous with a comet in 2014. JPL's microwave instrument onboard Rosetta will study gases given off by the comet. -
Microwave Limb Sounder
Launch: July 15, 2004
This instrument, which flies aboard NASA's Aura spacecraft, is designed to improve our understanding of ozone. -
Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer
Launch: July 15, 2004
This instrument onboard NASA's Aura spacecraft is an infrared sensor designed to study Earth's troposphere and look at ozone. -
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. -
Deep Impact
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. The spacecraft is now on a trajectory to fly past Earth in December 2007. -
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Launch: August 12, 2005NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will take the most powerful telescopic camera ever to another planet, plus five other scientific instruments.
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Epoxi
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. -
CloudSat
Launch: Apr. 28, 2006
CloudSat's trio of three satellites will be the first spacecraft to study clouds on a global basis. Their data will contribute to better predictions of clouds and their role in climate change. -
Phoenix
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 has 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. -
Dawn
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. -
Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2
Launch: June 20, 2008
This mission is a follow-on to the Jason-1 mission.