Space Missions
36 robotic and crewed missions exploring the Moon, Mars, the outer planets, asteroids, the Sun, and beyond — sourced from NASA, ESA, JAXA, ISRO, CNSA, and Roscosmos primary records, cross-linked to the publicly-traded companies that build them.
Last data refresh
Verified against agency primary sources
- Active missions
- 19
- Tracked spend
- $182.6B
- Targets reached
- 13
- Years of data
- 58
6 active · 7 in transit · 6 extended
Sum of all disclosed life-cycle costs
Distinct destination bodies / orbits
Earliest tracked mission to today
Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper is the largest planetary spacecraft NASA has ever flown — a $5.2B flagship now en route to investigate whether Jupiter's icy moon Europa harbors the three ingredients believed necessary for life. After Mars and Earth gravity assists, it arrives at Jupiter in 2030 for ~49 close flybys.
Next milestone
Earth gravity-assist flyby (planned)
· in 6 months
Prime contractors
- NASA JPL
- Johns Hopkins APL
- SpaceX
What's next
Upcoming milestones across all tracked missions
Critical Design Review
Chandrayaan-4in 1 months
Chang'e 7 launch on Long March 5
Chang'e 7in 1 months
Chang'e 7 surface operations precede Chang'e 8
Chang'e 8in 1 months
G1 uncrewed orbital test flight
Gaganyaanin 1 months
Launch on H3 from Tanegashima
MMX (Martian Moons eXploration)in 1 months
Targeted Mercury Orbit Insertion
BepiColomboin 6 months
Active
Currently operating at their primary destination.
Aditya-L1
Aditya-L1 is India's first dedicated solar mission and ISRO's first interplanetary-class observatory, designed to study the Sun's photosphere, chromosphere, and corona from a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrangian point.
- Indian Space Research Organisation
- Indian Institute of Astrophysics
- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope, deployed by Space Shuttle Discovery on 25 April 1990, is one of the most scientifically productive instruments ever built and a defining cultural icon of late-20th-century space science.
- Lockheed Martin
- BAE Systems (Ball Aerospace)
- Airbus Defence & Space
James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the most powerful astronomical observatory ever launched and the scientific successor to Hubble.
- Northrop Grumman
- BAE Systems (Ball Aerospace)
- Airbus Defence & Space
- +2 more
Parker Solar Probe
Parker Solar Probe is NASA's flagship heliophysics mission — the first spacecraft ever designed to fly through the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, and the closest any human-made object has ever come to a star.
- Johns Hopkins APL
- United Launch Alliance
- Northrop Grumman
Perseverance (Mars 2020)
Perseverance is NASA's most sophisticated Mars rover and the centerpiece of the agency's astrobiology campaign on the red planet.
- NASA JPL
- Lockheed Martin
- United Launch Alliance
- +2 more
Solar Orbiter
Solar Orbiter is ESA's flagship heliophysics mission, developed in close partnership with NASA, designed to take the first close-up images of the Sun's polar regions and to study the relationship between the Sun and the heliosphere.
- Airbus Defence & Space
- United Launch Alliance
- Leonardo
- +1 more
In Transit
Launched and en route to their target.
BepiColombo
BepiColombo is a joint ESA-JAXA mission to Mercury comprising two scientific orbiters launched together: ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), which will study the surface and interior, and JAXA's Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio), which will probe the planet's magnetosphere.
- Airbus Defence & Space
- Mitsubishi Electric
- Arianespace
- +1 more
Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper is NASA's flagship-class mission to investigate whether Jupiter's icy moon Europa could harbor conditions suitable for life.
- NASA JPL
- Johns Hopkins APL
- SpaceX
Hera
Hera is ESA's contribution to the world's first planetary defense experiment, the joint AIDA (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment) campaign.
- OHB System
- GMV
- Avio
- +1 more
JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer)
JUICE is the European Space Agency's flagship mission to the Jovian system, the first European mission to the outer Solar System and the first ever to orbit a moon other than Earth's.
- Airbus Defence & Space
- Arianespace
- Leonardo
- +1 more
Lucy
Lucy is NASA's mission to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids — two swarms of small primitive bodies trapped at Jupiter's L4 and L5 Lagrangian points.
- Lockheed Martin
- Southwest Research Institute
- United Launch Alliance
- +1 more
OSIRIS-APEX
OSIRIS-APEX is the extended-mission renaming of NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft following its successful sample return from asteroid Bennu in September 2023.
- Lockheed Martin
- University of Arizona
- KinetX Aerospace
Psyche
Psyche is NASA's first mission to a metal-rich asteroid — and the first time humanity will explore a world that may be the exposed iron-nickel core of a planetesimal whose rocky mantle was stripped away by ancient collisions.
- Maxar Technologies
- NASA JPL
- SpaceX
- +1 more
Extended Mission
Past primary mission, continuing in extended ops.
CAPSTONE
CAPSTONE — the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment — is a 12U CubeSat owned by Advanced Space (Colorado) and built by Tyvak that became the first spacecraft to enter the same near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) that NASA's future Lunar Gateway will use.
- Advanced Space
- Terran Orbital (Tyvak)
- Rocket Lab
- +1 more
Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)
Curiosity, the rover at the heart of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, has been operating in Gale Crater since the dramatic 'seven minutes of terror' sky-crane landing on 6 August 2012.
- NASA JPL
- Lockheed Martin
- United Launch Alliance
- +2 more
New Horizons
New Horizons is NASA's first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt — the great frontier of the outer Solar System.
- Johns Hopkins APL
- Southwest Research Institute
- United Launch Alliance
- +1 more
Tianwen-1
Tianwen-1 is China's first independent interplanetary mission and the first ever to deliver an orbiter, lander, and rover to Mars on the country's first attempt.
- China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)
- China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT)
- Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Tech
Voyager 1
Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object in existence and the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space.
- NASA JPL
- Lockheed Martin (heritage Martin Marietta)
- General Dynamics (heritage)
Voyager 2
Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft ever to fly by all four of the Solar System's giant planets — Jupiter (1979), Saturn (1981), Uranus (1986), and Neptune (1989) — and the second to enter interstellar space.
- NASA JPL
- Lockheed Martin (heritage Martin Marietta)
- General Dynamics (heritage)
Upcoming
Approved missions awaiting launch.
Artemis III
Artemis III is planned to be the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first ever to put astronauts on the lunar South Pole.
- SpaceX
- Lockheed Martin
- Airbus Defence & Space
- +2 more
Artemis IV
Artemis IV is planned as the first SLS Block 1B mission and the first to deliver a permanent crew rotation to the Lunar Gateway, the small space station NASA, ESA, JAXA, and CSA are jointly building in near-rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon.
- SpaceX
- Lockheed Martin
- Northrop Grumman
- +2 more
Artemis V
Artemis V is the first Artemis mission scheduled to use Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 lander as the Human Landing System, awarded under NASA's Sustaining Lunar Development contract in May 2023.
- Blue Origin
- Lockheed Martin
- Airbus Defence & Space
- +2 more
Chandrayaan-4
Chandrayaan-4 is India's planned first lunar sample-return mission, formally approved by the Union Cabinet in September 2024 with a budget of ₹2,104 crore (~$250M).
- Indian Space Research Organisation
- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
- Larsen & Toubro
Chang'e 7
Chang'e 7 is the next phase of China's lunar exploration program and the first dedicated mission to extensively survey the lunar south pole for water ice.
- China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)
- China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT)
Chang'e 8
Chang'e 8 is planned as China's lunar in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) flagship — the precursor mission that will establish baseline infrastructure for the International Lunar Research Station.
- China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)
- China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT)
Dragonfly
Dragonfly is the fourth mission in NASA's New Frontiers program, an ambitious nuclear-powered rotorcraft that will fly through the dense, cold atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.
- Johns Hopkins APL
- Lockheed Martin
- Malin Space Science Systems
Gaganyaan
Gaganyaan is India's first crewed spaceflight program — the country's bid to become the fourth nation to launch its own astronauts on its own rocket from its own soil, after the Soviet Union, the United States, and China.
- Indian Space Research Organisation
- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
- Larsen & Toubro
- +1 more
Mars Sample Return
Mars Sample Return (MSR) is the joint NASA-ESA campaign designed to bring the rock cores Perseverance is collecting back to Earth for laboratory analysis — the first samples ever returned from another planet.
- NASA JPL
- Lockheed Martin
- Airbus Defence & Space
- +1 more
MMX (Martian Moons eXploration)
MMX is JAXA's flagship mission to study Mars's two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, and to return the first samples ever from the Martian system.
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
- Mitsubishi Electric
- CNES
- +2 more
Tianwen-3
Tianwen-3 is China's planned Mars Sample Return mission and, if it launches on schedule, may become the first mission to return Martian samples to Earth — potentially before the joint NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return campaign.
- China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)
- China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT)
- Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Tech
Completed
Successfully completed and decommissioned.
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that fulfilled President John F.
- North American Aviation (now Boeing)
- Grumman Aircraft (now Northrop Grumman)
- Boeing (heritage)
- +1 more
Artemis II
Artemis II is the first crewed flight of the Artemis program and the first time humans will travel beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
- Lockheed Martin
- Airbus Defence & Space
- Boeing
- +2 more
Cassini-Huygens
Cassini-Huygens was a flagship-class joint NASA-ESA-ASI mission and the only spacecraft ever to orbit Saturn.
- NASA JPL
- Aérospatiale (now Airbus)
- Lockheed Martin
- +1 more
Chandrayaan-3
Chandrayaan-3 made India the fourth country in history to soft-land a spacecraft on the Moon and the first ever to land near the lunar South Pole.
- Indian Space Research Organisation
- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
- Larsen & Toubro
DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test)
DART, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, was humanity's first full-scale planetary defense demonstration: a deliberately engineered high-speed impact intended to alter the orbit of a small Solar System body.
- Johns Hopkins APL
- SpaceX
- L3Harris (Aerojet Rocketdyne)
- +1 more
Lost
Failed missions whose objectives were not met.
Data sourced from NASA, ESA, JAXA, ISRO, CNSA, Roscosmos primary records. Last refresh: .