Five decades of exploration
Thirty completed missions, remembered for what they attempted, discovered, and changed.
Apollo 11 launched Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins aboard Saturn V. Armstrong and Aldrin landed Eagle in the Sea of Tranquility, spent more than 21 hours on the surface, collected lunar material, and rejoined Collins in orbit before Columbia splashed down safely in the Pacific.
Legacy: It completed the first crewed landing on another world and returned people and lunar samples safely to Earth.
Viking 1 entered Mars orbit in June 1976 and placed its lander safely on Chryse Planitia on July 20. The two spacecraft returned orbital maps, weather and surface measurements, chemistry, and life-detection experiment results. The orbiter was shut down in 1980; the lander operated until a faulty command ended contact in 1982.
Legacy: Its landing opened sustained scientific exploration of the Martian surface and established a foundational environmental record.
Galileo used Venus and Earth gravity assists before reaching Jupiter in 1995. Its probe sampled Jupiter's atmosphere while the orbiter repeatedly surveyed the planet and its moons, despite a high-gain antenna that never deployed. NASA ended the extended mission with a controlled entry into Jupiter to protect Europa from contamination.
Legacy: It supplied evidence for oceans inside icy moons, discovered Ganymede's magnetic field, and transformed study of the Jupiter system.
Cassini carried ESA's Huygens probe to Saturn, entered orbit in 2004, and observed the planet, rings, magnetosphere, and moons through two extensions. Huygens landed on Titan in 2005. With propellant low, controllers completed 22 close Grand Finale passages and deliberately sent Cassini into Saturn's atmosphere in 2017.
Legacy: The mission revealed methane seas on Titan and a global ocean with hydrothermal activity inside Enceladus.
Magellan deployed from space shuttle Atlantis and reached Venus orbit in August 1990. Its synthetic-aperture radar progressively mapped almost the entire cloud-hidden surface, while later cycles gathered stereo and gravity data. After an aerobraking demonstration and extended observations, controllers commanded atmospheric entry and contact was lost.
Legacy: Its radar atlas made Venusian geology visible at global scale and remains a basic reference for studying the planet's surface.
MESSENGER followed a seven-year, gravity-assist route and became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury in March 2011. It mapped the planet, measured its magnetic field, surface chemistry, and exosphere, and confirmed unusual polar deposits. After exhausting the means to maintain altitude, it struck Mercury at the end of its extended mission.
Legacy: It replaced the flyby-era portrait of Mercury with a global orbital record of a geologically and chemically complex planet.
Kepler monitored stellar brightness to detect the small dips caused by transiting planets. After two reaction-wheel failures ended its original fixed-field survey, engineers balanced the telescope against sunlight for the K2 campaign. NASA retired the spacecraft in a safe solar orbit after it ran out of fuel, leaving more than 2,600 confirmed planets.
Legacy: Kepler demonstrated that planets are common throughout the galaxy and established the first statistical census of their sizes and orbits.
Spitzer entered an Earth-trailing orbit and observed the universe in infrared light. When its liquid helium was exhausted in 2009, the observatory continued with two shorter-wavelength detector channels as the Warm Mission. NASA decommissioned it in 2020 after studies ranging from nearby asteroids and exoplanets to distant galaxies.
Legacy: It directly detected light from an exoplanet and extended infrared astronomy across planetary systems, star formation, and the early universe.
Mars Pathfinder reached Ares Vallis on July 4, 1997, using a direct atmospheric entry, parachute, rockets, and airbags. The lander deployed the small Sojourner rover, and together they returned images, rock and soil analyses, and weather measurements until the final transmission in September. Both operated well beyond their design lives.
Legacy: It proved a lower-cost airbag landing system and demonstrated practical mobile robotic exploration on Mars.
Spirit landed in Gusev Crater in January 2004 for a planned 90-sol investigation of Martian rocks and soils. The rover crossed 7.73 kilometers, found strong evidence of a wetter past, and continued work after becoming embedded in soft soil as a stationary platform. Silent from March 2010, it was declared complete in May 2011.
Legacy: Spirit's endurance and mineral evidence expanded the known range of ancient watery environments on Mars.
Opportunity landed at Meridiani Planum in January 2004 and quickly found evidence that liquid water had altered local rocks. Designed for 90 sols, it explored for almost 15 years and drove 45.16 kilometers. A severe global dust storm cut communications in June 2018; after a prolonged recovery campaign, NASA ended the mission in 2019.
Legacy: It set an off-Earth driving record and built a long, traversable geological history of water-related environments on Mars.
InSight landed on Elysium Planitia in November 2018 to investigate the deep structure and activity of Mars. Its seismometer detected marsquakes and impacts while radio tracking constrained the planet's interior. Dust accumulated on the solar arrays until the batteries could no longer sustain communication, and NASA retired the lander in December 2022.
Legacy: It created the first sustained seismic record on another planet and directly constrained the crust, mantle, and core of Mars.
MBRSC's compact Rashid rover flew as a payload on the privately operated HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lander. The mission reached lunar orbit and began a controlled descent near Atlas crater, but the carrier did not touch down safely and impacted the Moon. Rashid therefore could not deploy or conduct its planned surface science and mobility experiments.
Legacy: The project established Emirati lunar-rover design experience and carried the region's first rover as far as lunar orbit.
Rosetta used four gravity assists and a decade-long journey to rendezvous with Comet 67P in August 2014. It mapped and accompanied the nucleus around the Sun and released the Philae lander to its surface. After more than two years at the comet, ESA ended operations with a controlled slow descent that gathered measurements to the final approach.
Legacy: It was the first mission to orbit a comet nucleus, escort it through perihelion, and place a probe on its surface.
Venus Express entered orbit in April 2006 and spent more than eight years examining the planet's atmosphere, clouds, plasma environment, and surface temperatures. Late in the mission it sampled deeper atmospheric layers through aerobraking. Propellant was exhausted in November 2014, preventing attitude and altitude control, and ESA closed the mission in December.
Legacy: It delivered the first sustained European survey of Venus and exposed the dynamics and escape processes of its atmosphere.
Herschel shared an Ariane 5 launch with Planck and operated around Sun-Earth L2 with a 3.5-meter telescope. Its cryogenic instruments observed the cold universe from far-infrared to submillimeter wavelengths. Science ended when the helium coolant ran out on April 29, 2013; ESA then moved it to a safe disposal orbit and sent the final shutdown command in June.
Legacy: Its large cold telescope revealed how gas and dust participate in star, planet, and galaxy formation across cosmic time.
Planck traveled with Herschel to Sun-Earth L2 and repeatedly surveyed the whole sky in nine microwave and far-infrared bands. Its high-frequency instrument completed observations in 2012 and the low-frequency instrument continued into 2013. Controllers moved the spacecraft into a heliocentric disposal orbit and sent the final command on October 23.
Legacy: It produced the most precise full-sky map of the cosmic microwave background and sharply constrained the standard cosmological model.
Hipparcos failed to reach its planned geostationary orbit when an apogee motor did not fire. ESA redesigned operations for the resulting highly elliptical path, added ground-station support, and collected precise stellar measurements until computer communication failed in 1993. Its Hipparcos and Tycho catalogues were completed after the spacecraft stopped.
Legacy: It established space astrometry and delivered unprecedented positions, distances, and motions for more than one hundred thousand stars.
Giotto joined an international fleet sent to Comet Halley and passed within about 600 kilometers of its nucleus in March 1986, returning close images and dust, gas, plasma, and magnetic measurements. ESA later revived the spacecraft for a second encounter, passing Comet Grigg-Skjellerup in July 1992 before placing Giotto in hibernation.
Legacy: ESA's first deep-space mission revealed a comet nucleus at close range and became the first spacecraft to visit two comets.
SMART-1 slowly spiraled from geostationary transfer orbit to the Moon using a solar-electric ion engine, entering lunar orbit in November 2004. Its miniaturized instruments mapped surface elements and studied illumination and geology while the mission validated propulsion and operations techniques. ESA ended the flight with a controlled lunar impact.
Legacy: It proved European solar-electric deep-space navigation and supplied technologies later applied to BepiColombo.
Gaia scanned the sky near Sun-Earth L2 for more than a decade, making over three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other objects before science collection ended in January 2025. After technology tests and final data downlinks, controllers moved it away from L2, disabled its systems, and transmitted the last commands on March 27.
Legacy: Its multi-dimensional stellar census is the largest and most precise map of the Milky Way and a durable foundation for astronomy.
Hayabusa rendezvoused with asteroid Itokawa in 2005, observed its surface, and attempted sample collection during touchdown. Fuel leakage, engine trouble, attitude-control loss, and interrupted communication threatened the return. JAXA recovered the flight and guided the spacecraft to Earth, where it released a capsule before the main craft reentered in 2010.
Legacy: It completed the first return to Earth from an asteroid and proved ion propulsion and autonomous proximity operations for later missions.
Akatsuki missed Venus orbit in 2010 after its main engine failed, but the team preserved the spacecraft in solar orbit and achieved insertion with smaller thrusters in December 2015. It then observed Venusian clouds, circulation, and weather for more than eight years. After communications were lost and the spacecraft aged beyond design life, JAXA ended operations in 2025.
Legacy: Its recovery created Japan's first planetary orbiter beyond Earth and produced a long, multiwavelength record of Venusian meteorology.
SLIM launched with the XRISM observatory and reached the Moon through a fuel-efficient transfer. It landed on January 20, 2024, about 10 meters from its target, though an engine anomaly left the vehicle at an unexpected attitude. The lander returned spectral observations, survived three lunar nights, and was retired after repeated communication attempts failed.
Legacy: It achieved Japan's first lunar soft landing and demonstrated terrain-relative navigation for a roughly ten-meter landing error.
India's first lunar mission entered a 100-kilometer orbit and used eleven instruments from India and international partners for mineral, chemical, and terrain mapping. Its Moon Impact Probe descended near the south polar region. After major objectives were completed and the orbit raised, communication was lost in August 2009 after more than 3,400 lunar circuits.
Legacy: Its measurements provided direct evidence of lunar water and established India's planetary science and deep-space operations capability.
Mars Orbiter Mission used a series of Earth-orbit burns and a 300-day cruise before entering Mars orbit on India's first attempt in September 2014. Its five instruments studied surface features, morphology, and the atmosphere for about eight years, far beyond a six-month design life. Communication was lost after a long eclipse in April 2022 and ISRO later declared end-of-life.
Legacy: It made India the fourth space agency to reach Mars orbit and proved autonomous interplanetary navigation with a compact spacecraft.
Chang'e 5 entered lunar orbit, landed near Mons Rümker, drilled and scooped material, and launched an ascent vehicle from the surface. The ascender transferred its sealed sample container to a returner in lunar orbit before the capsule came back to Inner Mongolia. CNSA reported that the 23-day expedition delivered 1,731 grams of lunar rock and soil.
Legacy: It completed China's first extraterrestrial sample return and brought back the first new lunar material since 1976.
Chang'e 6 entered lunar orbit and landed in the South Pole-Aitken Basin with communications relayed by Queqiao-2. It used a drill and robotic arm to gather subsurface and surface material, then launched an ascender for orbital rendezvous and transfer. The returner landed in Inner Mongolia 53 days after launch carrying the first samples from the lunar far side.
Legacy: It delivered humanity's first samples from the Moon's far side, opening direct laboratory study of the ancient South Pole-Aitken Basin.
Luna 24 entered lunar orbit, descended to Mare Crisium on August 18, and drilled roughly two meters into the regolith. Its ascent stage lifted the sealed core from the Moon the next day. After an 84-hour return, the capsule parachuted into western Siberia on August 23 with the final Soviet lunar sample and the last lunar material returned for more than four decades.
Legacy: It completed the Soviet Union's third successful robotic lunar sample return and recovered a deep core from Mare Crisium.
Venera 13 separated its lander from the flyby bus in February 1982. The capsule sampled the Venusian atmosphere during descent and touched down on March 1, returning color panoramas and measurements of the surface and lower atmosphere. Designed for 32 minutes under extreme heat and pressure, the lander transmitted from the surface for 127 minutes.
Legacy: It returned the first color panoramas and direct soil analysis from Venus while surviving far beyond its planned surface lifetime.