Present Missions

  • ACE image

    ACE  →

    The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) is an Explorer mission that studies particles arriving from the Sun, interstellar, and galactic sources to contribute to our understanding of the formation and evolution of the solar system as well as the astrophysical processes involved.

  • ADEOS-II image

    SeaWinds (AdeosII)  →

    The SeaWinds instruments are designed to acquire accurate, high-resolution, continuous, all-weather measurements of global (land, ice, and ocean) radar cross-section and near-surface vector winds over the ice-free global oceans.

  • AIM image

    AIM

    The AIM satellite mission will explore Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs), also called noctilucent clouds, to find out why they form and why they are changing.

  • Aqua image

    Aqua  →

    Aqua is one of a series of spacebased platforms that are central to NASA's Earth Science Enterprise (ESE), a long term study of the scope, dynamics and implications of global change.

  • Astro E-2

    Astro-E2/Suzaku

    Astro-E2/Suzaku is a satellite for studying X-rays emitted by stars, galaxies, and black holes.

  • Aura image

    Aura

    The EOS Aura satellite, instruments, launch, and science investigations are managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

  • image of CALIPSO satelitte

    CALIPSO

    The CALIPSO satellite is currently being developed to help scientists answer significant questions and provide new information about the effects of clouds and aerosols (airborne particles) on changes in the Earth's climate.

  • CHIPS image

    CHIPS  →

    CHIPS data will help scientists determine the electron temperature, ionization conditions, and cooling mechanisms of the million-degree plasma believed to fill the local interstellar bubble.

  • CloudSat image

    CloudSat

    CloudSat will use advanced radar to "slice" through clouds to see their vertical structure, providing a completely new observational capability from space.

  • Cluster image

    Cluster  →

    The original Cluster mission and the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) together comprised the Solar Terrestrial Science Programme (STSP).

  • CONTOUR image

    CONTOUR  →

    NASA scientists are using space satellites to unravel one of the great mysteries of the ancient world.

  • EO-1 image

    EO-1  →

    Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) is an advanced land-imaging mission that will demonstrate new instruments and spacecraft systems.

  • ERBS image

    ERBS  →

    ERBS was part of the NASA's 3 satellite Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE), designed to investigate how energy from the Sun is absorbed and re-emitted by the earth.

  • FAST image

    FAST  →

    FAST is a satellite designed to study Earth's aurora. This highly successful spacecraft has helped scientists answer fundamental questions about the causes and makeup of the aurora. FAST's primary objective is to study the microphysics of space plasma and the accelerated particles that cause the aurora.

  • FUSE  →

    Astronomers will use FUSE to search for deuterium in the interstellar medium near the Sun, in gas clouds in the far reaches of the Milky Way, and in distant intergalactic clouds between galaxies.

  • Galex image

    GALEX  →

    GALEX will observe hundreds of thousands of nearby and distant galaxies in ultraviolet (UV) light. Additionally, GALEX will view the stars in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

  • Geotail image

    GEOTAIL  →

    The primary purpose of the GEOTAIL mission is to study the structure and dynamics of the tail region of the magnetosphere with a comprehensive set of scientific instruments.

  • GOES M image

    GOES M  →

    The GOES I-M satellites are the primary element of U.S. weather monitoring and forecast operations and is a key component of NOAA's National Weather Service operations and modernization program.

  • GRACE image

    GRACE  →

    The primary goal of the GRACE mission is to accurately map variations in the Earth's gravity field over its 5-year lifetime.

  • HETE-2 image

    HETE-2  →

    The High Energy Transient Explorer is a small scientific satellite designed to detect and localize gamma-ray bursts.

  • Hubble Space Telescope image

    Hubble Space Telescope

    Goddard is responsible for HST project management, including mission and science operations, servicing missions, and all associated development activities.

  • ICESat image

    ICESat  →

    Are the ice sheets that still blanket the Earth' poles growing or shrinking?

  • IMAGE image

    IMAGE  →

    IMAGE is the first satellite mission dedicated to imaging the Earth's magnetosphere, the region of space controlled by the Earth's magnetic field and containing extremely tenuous plasmas of both solar and terrestrial origin.

  • INTEGRAL image

    INTEGRAL  →

    ESA's International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory is detecting some of the most energetic radiation that comes from space. It is the most sensitive gamma-ray observatory ever launched. INTEGRAL is an ESA mission in cooperation with Russia and the United States.

  • Jason image

    Jason

    Jason is an oceanography mission to monitor global ocean circulation, improve global climate predictions, and monitor events.

  • image of LAGEOS 1

    LAGEOS 1  →

    The LAGEOS satellites are designed to provide an orbiting benchmark for geodynamical studies of the Earth.

  • image of LAGEOS 1

    LAGEOS 2  →

    The LAGEOS satellites are designed to provide an orbiting benchmark for geodynamical studies of the Earth.

  • Landsat 7 image

    Landsat 7  →

    A satellite used to acquire remotely sensed images of the Earth's land surface and surrounding coastal regions.

  • The pioneering MESSENGER spacecraft

    MESSENGER

    MESSENGER will help us answer key questions about Mercury.

  • Image of New Horizons

    New Horizons

    NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moon Charon.

  • NOAA-N image

    NOAA-N

    NOAA-N is the fourth in the series of support dedicated microwave instruments for the generation of temperature, moisture, surface and hydrological products in cloudy regions where visible and Infrared (IR) instruments have decreased capability.

  • image from POLAR

    POLAR  →

    The images from POLAR confirm the three-century old theory that auroras in the northern and southern hemispheres are nearly mirror images; conjugates of each other.

  • HESSI image

    RHESSI  →

    Explore the basic physics of particle acceleration and energy release in solar flares.

  • RXTE

    RXTE  →

    The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) is a satellite that observes the fast-moving, high-energy worlds of black holes, neutron stars, X-ray pulsars and bursts of X-rays that light up the sky and then disappear forever.

  • SAMPEX image

    SAMPEX  →

    The four SAMPEX instruments are a complementary set of high resolution, high sensitivity, particle detectors used to conduct studies of solar, anomalous, galactic, and magnetospheric energetic particles.

  • SOHO

    SOHO is commanded from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland (USA). Its data is retrieved via the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) and routed to the Experimenters' Operations Facility (EOF) located at GSFC.

  • Solar-B

    Solar-B  →

    The Solar-B observatory is scheduled to be launched on a Japanese M-V rocket out of Kagoshima, Japan, in 2006.

  • SORCE image

    SORCE  →

    SORCE is a NASA-sponsored satellite mission that will provide state-of-the-art measurements of incoming x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, and total solar radiation.

  • Stereo

    STEREO

    The STEREO mission will trace the flow of energy and matter from the Sun to the Earth while using two identically equipped spacecraft to provide revolutionary 3-D imaging of coronal mass ejections (CME’s).

  • ST5 image

    ST5

    ST5’s mission consists of multiple miniaturized satellites, called small-sats, flying in the test track of Earth's magnetosphere.

  • SWAS image

    SWAS  →

    The SWAS (Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite) is a NASA Small Explorer Project (SMEX) designed to study the chemical composition of interstellar gas clouds. The primary objective of SWAS is to survey water, molecular oxygen, carbon, and isotopic carbon monoxide emission in a variety of galactic star forming regions.

  • Swift image

    Swift

    The Swift mission is dedicated to the study of gamma-ray burst (GRB) science.

  • Terra image

    Terra

    Terra (formerly EOS AM-1) is the flagship satellite of NASA's Earth observing systems. Terra is the first EOS (Earth Observing System) platform and provides global data on the state of the atmosphere, land, and oceans, as well as their interactions with solar radiation and with one another.

  • Themis

    THEMIS

    THEMIS answers fundamental outstanding questions regarding the magnetospheric substorm instability, a dominant mechanism of transport and explosive release of solar wind energy within Geospace.

  • TIMED image

    TIMED  →

    The TIMED mission is studying the influences of the sun and humans on the least explored and understood region of Earth’s atmosphere – the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere (MLTI).

  • TRACE image

    TRACE  →

    Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) will explore the three-dimensional magnetic structures that emerge through the visible surface of the Sun - the Photosphere - and define both the geometry and dynamics of the upper solar atmosphere: the Transition Region and Corona.

  • TRMM image

    TRMM  →

    TRMM is particularly devoted to determining rainfall in the tropics and subtropics of the earth. These regions make up about two thirds of the total rainfall on Earth and are responsible for driving our weather and climate system.

  • AURS image

    UARS  →

    The UARS satellite has allowed scientists to gain a better understanding of the energy input, chemistry and dynamics of the upper atmosphere and the coupling between the upper and lower atmosphere.

  • WIND image

    WIND  →

    Wind was the first of two NASA spacecraft in the Global Geospace Science initiative and part of the ISTP Project. The science objectives of the WIND mission are to provide complete plasma, energetic particle, and magnetic field input for magnetospheric and ionospheric studies.

  • WIRE image

    WIRE  →

    WIRE will help reveal the role of starbursts in the evolution of all galaxies.

  • MAP image

    WMAP  →

    The WMAP mission is designed to determine the geometry, content, and evolution of the universe.

  • XMM Newton image

    XMM  →

    The XMM-Newton mission will help scientists solve a number of cosmic mysteries, ranging from the enigmatic black holes to the origins of the Universe itself.