General information for everyone
Space-based Observatories
This page aims to provide near-complete lists of
solar-system space missions (including solar science),
astronomy & physics space missions, and an incomplete but grwoing list of
earth-science/meteorology missions. A separate list of ground-based telescopes is kept
here. Comprehensive details of space projects are maintained by the various space agencies (see our
list of organizations).
ACE Advanced Composition Explorer; samples low-energy particles of solar origin and high-energy galactic particles
BEAGLE 2 A lander for the Mars Express mission (2003)
BEPICOLUMBO ESA's mission to Mercury (see also Messenger).
CASSINI Mission to Saturn; currently in cruise phase, scheduled to arrive 2004 July 1, when it will deploy the Huygens Titan lander.
CLEMENTINE `Faster, better, cheaper' lunar exploration (1994)
CLUSTER II Studying how the solar wind affects Earth.
CONTOUR The ill-fated Comet Nucleus Tour
DAWN Dawn's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch
DEEP IMPACT The first mission aiming to create a crater on a cometary body
GALILEO Journey to Jupiter (and its satellite system).
GENESIS NASA's Discovery mission for in-situ sampling of the solar wind
GIOTTO ESA mission to Comet Halley
HETE-2 High Energy Transient Explorer
HUYGENS Titan lander, part of the Cassini mission.
KEPLER "A search for habitable planets"
LUNAR PROSPECTOR Mapping the moon (1998 January--1999 July)
MAGELLAN Mission to Venus (1990-1994)
MARS EXPRESS ESA's mission to Mars (2003)
2001 MARS ODYSSEY NASA mission to map the amount and distribution of chemical elements and minerals that make up the Martian surface.
MARS SURVEYOR '98 Comprising Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander
MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR High-resolution surface mapping
MARS PATHFINDER Pictures from the Sagan Memorial Station (1997-1998).
MESSENGER NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging mission.
NetLander 2007 The NetLander 2007 Mars mission will focus on investigations of the interior of the planet and the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere.
NOZOMI Nozomi (Planet-B) is the first Japanese Mars orbiter
NEAR The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous
PIONEER The Pioneer spacecraft were among the first to explore the solar system
POLAR The Polar spacecraft was launched to obtain data from the polar region of geospace.
RHESSI The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager
ROSETTA Rendezvous with a comet.
RXTE The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
SOHO The SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory
SOLAR-B Studying the solar origins of space weather and global change
SORCE The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment
STARDUST Return of a sample of cometary material to Earth.
STEREO Two identically equipped spacecraft to provide revolutionary 3-D imaging of coronal mass ejections
TIMED To understand the influence of the Sun on Earth's atmosphere
TRACE Transition Region and Coronal Explorer: exploring the three-dimensional magnetic structures that emerge through the visible surface of the Sun.
ULYSSES Charting the solar wind.
VENUS EXPRESS ESA's first mission to Earth's nearest planetary neighbour
VOYAGER The 'greatest space adventurer', and groundbreaking planetary exploration mission
YOHKOH An observatory for studying X-rays and gamma-rays from the Sun. Climate orbiter failed to deploy [full story]
ASCA ASCA (Astro-D) was Japan's Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics
ASTRO-E2 Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite (Goddard web site; the original Astro-E was lost on launch).
BeppoSAX The BeppoSAX mission (Satellite per Astronomia X, "Beppo" in honor of Giuseppe Occhialini) is distinguished by its wide spectral coverage.
BOOMERAnG Balloon Observations Of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation And Geophysics (a balloon-borne CMB experiment)
CGRO The Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (1991-2000)
CHANDRA The Advanced X-ray Astronomy Facility, AXAF
CHIPS The Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer
COROT 'COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits' – designed to detect tiny changes in brightness from nearby stars.
DARWIN Infrared space interferometry, looking for signs of life on Earth-like planets.
EDDINGTON ESA's photometric planet-search mission [Cancelled]
EUVE The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer mission
FIRST Renamed Herschel, this mission is designed to explore the mm and far-IR spectral regions.
FUSE The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) is NASA mission to observe in the far UV. Launched 1999 June, operated from John-Hopkins University Baltimore.
GAIA The next generation astrometry mission, a successor to Hipparcos
GALEX Galaxy Evolution Explorer – mapping the history of star formation in the universe.
HALCA Halca (Muses-B) is a Japanese satellte, and the first dedicated to Very Long Baseline Interferometry.
HERSCHEL Herschel (formerly known as FIRST) is designed to explore the mm and far-IR spectral regions.
HIPPARCOS An extremely successful astrometry mission
HST: the Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a NASA 2.4m UV/optical/near-IR telescope operated by the STScI in Baltimore. Information is also available from the European Coordinating Facility in Garching or UK Support Facility in Cambridge.
INTEGRAL Gamma-Ray Observatory
ISO: the Infrared Space Observatory The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was an ESA mission covering the mid to far IR. The WWW server is maintained in Villafranca Madrid.
IUE: the International Ultraviolet Explorer The IUE satellite was a joint project between NASA, ESA and PPARC and collected low and high dispersion spectroscopy in the range 1150-3200A, between Jan 1978 and Sep 1996, when it was terminated. There is an extensive archive maintained at STScI, while the UK Support includes details about the `IUE Newly Extracted Spectra' (INES) archive.
JWST: the James Webb Space Telescope NASA's next-generation Space Telescope (and formerly known as the NGST), which is being developed to replace the HST and to observe the distant universe.
KEPLER "A search for habitable planets"
LISA The Laser Interferometry Space Antenna, searching for gravitational waves.
MAP The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (see also PLANCK), renamed the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
MAXIMA The Millimeter Anisotropy eXperiment IMaging Array (balloon-borne)
ODIN A Swedish small satellite project for astronomical and atmospheric research
PLANCK Imaging the Cosmic Microwave Background (see also MAP and BOOMERANG).
ROSAT An X-ray/EUV satellite (1990-1999)
Spitzer Space Telescope The Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly know as SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility), launched in 2003, observes the IR between 3 and 180 micron, with a 0.85m primary mirror, the largest IR telescope ever launched into space.
SOFIA A joint NASA-DLR observatory which will be mounted in a modified Boeing 747-SP to observe at infrared wavelengths above the bulk of the Earth's atmosphere (SOFIA stands for Stratospheric Observatory for IR astronomy).
Space VLBI Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry
SPIDR Spectroscopy and Photometry of the Intergalactic medium's Diffuse Radiation
STEP Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle
SWAS The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite
Swift 'Catching gamma-ray bursts on the fly'
WIRE The Wide-field InfraRed Explorer
WMAP The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
XMM-Newton A powerful observatory for X-ray astronomy, the X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM-Newton) telescope, was launched in 1999 December ( UK XMM Guest Observer Support Facility.)
CHAMP CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload: a German small satellite mission for geoscientific and atmospheric research and applications.
CORIOLIS A 3-year meteorological science mission to demonstrate the viability of using polarimetry to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction from space
CRYOSAT A three-year radar altimetry mission
GFO Geosat Follow-On mission
GOCE The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Mission
IMAGE Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration
Jason-1 The first follow-on to the TOPEX/Poseidon mission
POLAR The Polar spacecraft was launched to obtain data from the polar region of geospace.
TOPEX/Poseidon A joint venture between CNES and NASA to map ocean surface topography.
Please notify dead links, or suggestions for additional links, to www.ras.org.uk
