Past Missions
Past missions hold some of our greatest achievements. After the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik the United States quickly responded with their own satellite, Explorer. In 1958, NASA was founded and a series of great adventures began.
Image at right: Apollo Astronaut on the Moon (courtesy of NASA).
The highlight of past missions was, of course, the Apollo program, but without the vigorous tests done during previous programs, we might have never seen a man on the moon. These programs focused on the safety of the astronauts and the many techniques they would need to use in space.
Earth Missions
- Inaugurating the era of space exploration for the US, the First Explorer was launched into Earth orbit February 1, 1958 by the Army Ballistic Missle Agency.
Explorer 1
America's first artificial satellite.
Learn more about Explorer 1 on NASA's website.
Fast
FAST (Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer), the second mission in NASA's Small Explorer Satellite Program (SMEX), is a satellite designed to study Earth's aurora.
Learn more about FAST on Berkeley's website
Gravity Probe-B
This mission is the relativity gyroscope experiment developed by NASA and Stanford University to test two unverified predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Learn more about Gravity Probe-B on NASA's website.
Jason-1
Jason-1 is the first follow-on to the highly successful TOPEX/Poseidon mission that measured ocean surface topography to an accuracy of 4.2 cm, enabled scientists to forecast the 1997-1998 El Niño, and improved understanding of ocean circulation and its effect of global climate.
Learn more about Jason-1 on NASA's website
Polar
The Polar Mission is to obtain data from both high- and low-altitude perspectives of the polar region of geospace.
Learn more about the Polar on NASA's website.
Human Spaceflight Missions
- Apollo 13 made a safe return to Earth after an oxygen tank explosion that kept the three-man crew from landing on the moon in April, 1970.
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
The first space mission to be undertaken as a joint effort between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Learn more about the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project on NASA's website.
Apollo
President Kennedy's bold challenge set the nation on a journey unlike any before in human history--a journey to land on the moon.
Learn more about the Apollo program on NASA's website.
Gemini
The bridge to the moon.
Learn more about the Gemini program on NASA's website.
Hubble's Last Servicing Mission (SM4)
Space Shuttle Atlantis journeyed to the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. The crew has completing 5 space walks.
Become a fan of the mission on Facebook.
Mercury
America's First Space Program.
Learn more about the Mercury program on NASA's website
Skylab
America's first space station and orbital science and engineering laboratory.
Learn more about Skylab on NASA's website.
Space Shuttle
The space shuttle is the most complex machine ever built and its capacity is instrumental in building the International Space Station.
Learn more about Space Shuttle on NASA's website
Learn more about the Hubble Servicing Mission on NASA's website.
Follow NASA Astronauts on Twitter.
Solar System Missions
- Galileo was an unmanned spacecraft sent by NASA to study the planet Jupiter and its moons.
Deep Impact
Exploring Comet Tempel 1 to determine the origins of life in our Solar System.
Learn more about Deep Impact on NASA's website
Galileo
Journey to Jupiter.
Learn more about Galileo on NASA's website.
IMAGE
IMAGE was a mission to study the global response of the magnetosphere to the changes in solar wind.
Learn more about IMAGE on NASA's website.
Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)
A mission to confirm the presence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole of the Moon.
Learn more about LCROSS on NASA's website.
Magellan
Magellan spacecraft made a dramatic conclusion to its highly successful mission at Venus when it is commanded to plunge into the planet's dense atmosphere.
Learn more about the Magellan Project on NASA's website.
Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Global Surveyor was the first successful U.S. mission launched to Mars since the Viking mission in 1976.
Learn more about Mars Global Surveyor on NASA's website.
Mars Pathfinder
Mars Pathfinder was the first mission to deliver a lander and a free-ranging robotic rover to the surface of Mars.
Learn more about Mars Pathfinder on NASA's website.
NEAR
NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) is the first mission ever to go into orbit around an asteroid.
Learn more about NEAR on NASA's website.
Phoenix Mars Lander
The Phoenix Mars Lander surpassed its 3 month mission in the Northern Plains of Mars by 2 months.
Learn more about the Phoenix Mars Lander on NASA's website.
Pioneer
A journey through our solar system and beyond.
Learn more about the Pioneer on NASA's website.
Ranger
The Ranger series was the first U.S. attempt to obtain close-up images of the Lunar surface.
Learn more about Ranger on NASA's website.
SAMPEX
SAMPEX studied the energy, composition and charge states of particles from supernova explosions in the distant reaches of the galaxy, from the heart of solar flares and from the depths of nearby interstellar space.
Learn more about SAMPEX on NASA's website.
Stardust
First NASA mission to return particles from beyond the Earth Moon orbit.
Learn more about Stardust on NASA's website.
Surveyor
The Surveyor probes were the first U.S. spacecraft to land safely on the Moon.
Learn more about Surveyor on NASA's website.
TRACE
TRACE (Transition Region and Coronal Explorer) enabled solar physicists to study the connections between fine-scale magnetic fields and the associated plasma structures on the Sun.
Learn more about TRACE on NASA's website.
Ulysses
A mission to study the Sun at all latitudes.
Learn more about Ulysses on NASA's website.
Voyager
The interplanetary mission to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Learn more about Voyager on NASA's website.
Beyond the Solar System Missions
- The SAMPEX spacecraft (Courtesy of NASA)
COBE
The COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite was to measure the diffuse infrared and microwave radiation from the early universe to the limits set by our astrophysical environment.
Learn more about COBE on NASA's website.
Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was the second of NASA's Great Observatories.
Learn more about the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory on NASA's website.
FUSE
FUSE (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer) was launched explore the Universe using the technique of high-resolution spectroscopy in the far-ultraviolet spectral region.
Learn more about FUSE on NASA's website.
Genesis
The search for orgins.
Learn more about Genesis on NASA's website.
SAMPEX
SAMPEX studies the energy, composition and charge states of particles from supernova explosions in the distant reaches of the galaxy, from the heart of solar flares and from the depths of nearby interstellar space.
Learn more about SAMPEX on NASA's website.
WISE
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.
Learn more about the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer on the WISE mission website.
WMAP
WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ) is a mission designed to take the first full sky picture of the early Universe.
Learn more about WMAP on NASA's website.
Additional Links
- Around the Adler
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Our Doane Observatory is open every Third Thursday for Adler After Dark.
- Did you know?
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Over its flight career, space shuttle Endeavour flew 122853151 miles and spent 299 days in space.
- Get involved
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Observe the skies with your very own telescope.
