Heliophysics Missions - Science Mission Directorate

Heliophysics Missions (36)

Heliophysics research and exploration aims to explore the Sun-Earth system to understand the Sun and its effects on Earth, the solar system, and the space environmental conditions that will be experienced by explorers, and to demonstrate technologies that can improve future operational systems.

2008 Senior Review of the Mission Operations and Data Analysis Program for the Heliophysics Operating Missions
2005 Senior Review of Sun-Solar-System Connection Missions Operations and Data Analysis Program
2003 Senior Review of the Sun-Earth Connection Mission Operations and Data Analysis Program
2001 Senior Review of the Sun-Earth Connection Mission Operations and Data Analysis Program
1997 Senior Review of the Sun-Earth Connection Mission Operations and Data Analysis Program

*Sort missions by clicking Launch Date, A-Z, or PHASE column headers.

Launch Date	A-Z	Phase
19970826 August 25, 1997	ACE Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) observes particles of solar, interplanetary, interstellar, and galactic origins, spanning the energy range from solar wind ions to...	Operating
20070426 April 25, 2007	AIM Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM)  is a mission to determine the causes of the highest altitude clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. The number of clouds in the middle...	Operating
20121201 2012	BARREL 1 The Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses mission is a balloon-based Mission of Opportunity to augment the measurements of NASA's RBSP spacecraft....	Development
20080416 20:00:00 USEastern April 16, 2008	CINDI/CNOFS The Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigations (CINDI) is a mission to understand the dynamics of the Earth's ionosphere. CINDI will provide two instruments for the...	Operating
20000717 July 16, 2000	Cluster-II Cluster is a European Space Agency program with major NASA involvement. The 4 Cluster spacecraft are providing a detailed three-dimensional map of the magnetosphere, with...	Operating
19971202 December 02, 1997	Equator-S Equator-S was a German Space Agency project, with contributions from ESA and NASA, related to the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics program. The mission provided...	Past
19960822 August 21, 1996	FAST Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST) studies the detailed plasma physics of the Earth's auroral regions. Ground support campaigns coordinate satellite measurements with...	Operating
19920724 July 24, 1992	Geotail The GEOTAIL mission is a collaborative project undertaken by the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and NASA. Its primary objective is to study the...	Operating
20060924 September 23, 2006	Hinode (Solar-B) Hinode (formerly known as Solar-B) is a Japanese ISAS mission proposed as a follow-on to the highly successful Japan/US/UK Yohkoh (Solar-A) collaboration. The mission...	Operating
20081019 20:00:00 USEastern October 19, 2008	IBEX IBEX will be the first mission designed to detect the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between...	Operating
20000326 March 25, 2000	IMAGE IMAGE studied the global response of the magnetosphere to changes in the solar wind. Major changes occur to the configuration of the magnetosphere as a result of changes in...	Past
19731026 October 26, 1973	IMP-8 IMP 8 has deepened understanding of the space environment near Earth in many ways. Observations from IMP 8 provided insight into plasma physics, the Earth's magnetic field,...	Past
19971022 October 22, 1997	ISEE The ISEE (International Sun-Earth Explorer) program was an international cooperative program between NASA and ESA to study the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's...	Past
20141101 2014	MMS The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission will determine the small-scale basic plasma processes which transport, accelerate and energize plasmas in thin boundary and current...	Development
19720303 March 03, 1972	Pioneer 10 & 11 These Pioneer missions traveled through the asteroid belt to observe Jupiter, Saturn and continue on to the outer solar...	Past
19960225 February 24, 1996	Polar Polar is the second of two NASA spacecraft in the Global Geospace Science (GGS) initiative and part of the ISTP Project. GGS is designed to improve greatly the understanding...	Past
20121001 2012	RBSP The RBSP mission will provide scientific understanding, ideally to the point of predictability, of how populations of relativistic electrons and ions in space form and change...	Development
20020202 February 02, 2002	RHESSI Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager (RHESSI)  studies solar flares in X-rays and gamma-rays. It explores the basic physics of particle acceleration and...	Operating
19920703 July 03, 1992	SAMPEX The Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer is investigating the composition of local interstellar matter and solar material and the transport of magnetospheric...	Past
None 2009	SDO Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the first satellite mission in NASA's Living With a Star Program, is a solar observatory whose primary goals are to understand the solar...	Development
20180101 TBD	Sentinels The primary scientific objective of the Sentinels is to discover, understand, and model the connection between solar phenomena and interplanetary disturbances, particularly...	Under Study
19980226 February 26, 1998	SNOE SNOE ("snowy") was a small satellite investigating the effects of energy from the Sun and from the magnetosphere on the density of nitric oxide in the Earth's upper...	Past
19951203 December 02, 1995	SOHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)  is a solar observatory studying the structure, chemical composition, and dynamics of the solar interior. SOHO a joint venture of...	Operating
20150101 TBD	Solar Orbiter Solar Orbiter is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to study the Sun from a distance closer than any spacecraft previously has, and will provide images and measurements in...	Under Study
20150101 TBD	Solar Probe Plus Solar Probe Plus will be a historic mission, flying into one of the last unexplored regions of the solar system, the Sun’s atmosphere or corona, for the first time. This...	Under Study
19940913 September 13, 1994	Spartan 201 Spartan is a small, Shuttle-launched and retrieved satellite. Spartan 201, whose mission is to study the Sun, has a science payload consisting of two telescopes: the...	Past
20060322 March 22, 2006	ST5 Space Technology 5 (ST5) flight tested its miniaturized satellites and innovative technologies in the harsh environment of Earth's...	Past
20061026 October 25, 2006	STEREO The goal of STEREO is to understand the origin the Sun's coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and their consequences for Earth. The mission consists of two spacecraft, one leading...	Operating
20070218 February 17, 2007	THEMIS Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS)  is a study of the onset of magnetic storms within the tail of the Earth's magnetosphere....	Operating
20011208 December 07, 2001	TIMED Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) explores the energy transfer into and out of the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere/Ionosphere (MLTI)...	Operating
19980402 April 01, 1998	TRACE Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) observes the effects of the emergence of magnetic flux from deep inside the Sun to the outer corona with high spatial and...	Operating
20080227 February 26, 2008	TWINS A & B TWINS will provide stereo imaging of the Earth's magnetosphere, the region surrounding the planet controlled by its magnetic field and containing the Van Allen radiation...	Operating
19901007 October 06, 1990	Ulysses The Ulysses Mission is the first spacecraft to explore interplanetary space at high solar latitudes, orbiting the Sun nearly perpendicular to the plane in which the planets...	Operating
19770906 September 05, 1977	Voyager The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft continue exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. In the 25th year after their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away...	Operating
19941102 November 01, 1994	Wind Wind studies the solar wind and its impact on the near-Earth environment. This mission is part of SMD's Heliophysics Research...	Operating
19910830 August 30, 1991	Yohkoh Yohkoh, an observatory for studying X-rays and gamma-rays from the Sun, is a project of the Institute for Space and Astronautical Sciences, Japan....	Past

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Heliophysics Missions (36)