Planetary probe
21 entries
Voyager 1
The most distant human-made object from Earth. Over 24 billion km away as of 2024. Entered interstel...
Voyager 2
The only spacecraft to visit all four gas giants. Flew past Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus ...
New Horizons
The first spacecraft to visit Pluto. Flew past Pluto in July 2015. Reached Ultima Thule in January 2...
Dawn
The first spacecraft to orbit two different bodies. Visited Vesta from 2011-2012 and Ceres from 2015...
Lucy
The first mission to Jupiters Trojan asteroids. Will visit 8 asteroids over 12 years. Named after th...
Psyche
Visiting asteroid 16 Psyche, believed to be an exposed iron core. Popular estimates of its metal val...
BepiColombo
A joint ESA/JAXA mission to Mercury. Two orbiters will study the planet from different orbits. Arriv...
Europa Clipper
Will study Jupiters moon Europa for signs of life. Europas subsurface ocean contains more water than...
Luna 2
The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon. Launched by the Soviet Union in Septem...
Luna 3
Returned the first images of the far side of the Moon. Launched October 4, 1959, two years to the da...
Mariner 2
The first successful mission to another planet. Flew past Venus on December 14, 1962. Found that Ven...
Mariner 4
Made the first successful flyby of Mars in July 1965. Returned 21 complete images of the Martian sur...
Viking 1
The first fully successful landing on Mars. The lander touched down in Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1...
Pioneer 10
The first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt and fly past Jupiter, in December 1973. Carries a go...
Pioneer 11
The first spacecraft to fly past Saturn, in September 1979. Also flew past Jupiter in 1974, passing ...
Deep Impact
Fired an impactor into comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. The flyby craft watched the collision and stu...
NEAR Shoemaker
The first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid. Launched in 1996 and reached asteroid Eros in 2000. Orbit...
DART
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test, the first planetary defense test. Crashed into the moonlet Dim...
InSight
A NASA lander that studied the deep interior of Mars. Landed in Elysium Planitia in November 2018. I...
Giotto
The first European deep space mission. Flew within about 600 km of the nucleus of Halleys Comet in M...
JUICE
The European Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer. Launched on Ariane 5 in April 2023. Will study Ganymede, Ca...