Space Missions

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 has survived far beyond anything its designers could reasonably have expected. Nearly five decades later, the spacecraft remains in communication with Earth as it travels through interstellar space, making it …

Pluto was discovered in 1930, but for most of the 20th century it remained little more than a distant point of light. Even the best telescopes could reveal relatively little about its surface, atmosphere or …

Saturn is one of the most recognizable planets in the solar system, but spacecraft exploration revealed that the world behind the rings is far stranger and more complex than telescopes from Earth could show. Its …

Jupiter is a difficult world to explore. It lies hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, possesses an enormous magnetic field and is surrounded by intense radiation belts that can damage spacecraft electronics. Yet missions …

Mars has attracted more sustained spacecraft exploration than any planet beyond Earth. Since the first successful flyby in 1965, orbiters, landers, rovers and even a helicopter have transformed the Red Planet from a distant world …

Mercury is a surprisingly difficult planet to explore. Although it is much closer to Earth than the outer planets, a spacecraft traveling toward Mercury falls deep into the Sun’s gravitational well and gains enormous speed. …

Venus is one of the most difficult worlds in the solar system to explore. Beneath its clouds, surface temperatures are hot enough to melt lead, atmospheric pressure is about 90 times greater than Earth’s at …