D - I Missions - Science Mission Directorate

Missions

The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Space Act) established NASA as an aerospace research and development agency that sponsors and conducts flight missions to obtain data in furtherance of its objectives. In NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD), flight missions range from suborbital projects—including balloons, sounding rockets, and airplanes—to interplanetary probes and flagship observatories. All investigations and missions selected and flown must respond to Agency goals and strategic objectives.

Mission opportunities are open to all proposers, within fixed rules, via public announcement, and selections are based primarily on scientific and technical merit as evaluated by independent peer review. Foreign partners are frequent and valued participants in joint missions. The partnerships are generally conducted on a cooperative, no-exchange-of-funds basis. NASA also works closely with a number of other Federal agencies to implement and support our flight missions. To learn more about mission planning and development, see section 3.3 of the Science Plan for NASA's Science Mission Directorate 2007 - 2016 (PDF 5.1 MB).

This page provides access to all SMD missions, with several options for viewing. Click on the column headers below to change your view. The "All" tab will provide you with a complete listing that can be sorted to suit your interests.

ALL A-C D-I J-R S-Z

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

Launch Date	A-Z	Phase
20070928 September 27, 2007	Dawn The Dawn mission intends to orbit Vesta and Ceres, two of the largest asteroids in the solar system. According to current theories, the very different properties of Vesta and...	Operating
20050112 January 12, 2005	Deep Impact The Deep Impact mission was selected as a Discovery mission in 1999. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket on January 12, 2005 and left Earth’s orbit toward...	Operating
20050112 January 12, 2005	Deep Impact Epoxi Extrasolar Planet Observation and Deep Impact Extended Investigation EPOXI is a follow-on mission to Deep Impact. This mission is part of SMD's Discovery...	Operating
19981024 October 24, 1998	Deep Space 1 During its 11-month primary mission, DS1 successfully tested 12 revolutionary technologies destined for future missions. In 2001, DS-1 returned the best pictures and other...	Past
None TBD	DESDynI The Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice mission combines two sensors that, taken together, provide observations important for solid-Earth (surface...	Under Study
19930113 January 13, 1993	DXS The primary objective of the Diffuse X-ray Spectrometer (DXS) payload was to obtain measurements on the diffuse soft X-ray background radiation in the Milky Way Galaxy. DXS...	Past
19810803 August 03, 1981	Dynamics Explorer The Dynamics Explorer Plasma Wave Investigator mission's general objective was to investigate the strong interactive processes coupling the hot, tenuous, convecting plasmas...	Past
20001122 November 21, 2000	Earth Observing-1 (NMP) The NMP EO-1 mission is an advanced land-imaging mission that will demonstrate new instruments and spacecraft systems. EO-1 will validate technologies contributing to the...	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
19841005 October 05, 1984	ERBS Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), expected to have a two-year operation life, provided scientific data about the Earth's ozone layer for more than two decades. ERBS...	Past
19910717 July 17, 1991	ERS The European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) is the most sophisticated Earth observation satellite ever developed in Europe. It weighs well over two tons and, fully...	Past
19660203 February 03, 1966	ESSA The Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) Satellite Program provided cloud-cover photography to the American National Meteorological Center from 1966 –...	Past
19920607 June 07, 1992	EUVE The Extreme-Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) was a part of NASA's Explorer spacecraft series, and designed to operate in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) range of the spectrum, from...	Past
20130101 2013	ExoMars The European Space Agency plans for the ExoMars rover to grind samples of Martian soil to fine powder and deliver them to a suite of analytical instruments, including Urey...	Under Study
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
20080611 20:00:00 USEastern June 11, 2008	Fermi Fermi, NASA's new gamma-ray observatory, will open a wide window on the universe. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light, and the gamma-ray sky is spectacularly...	Operating
19990625 June 24, 1999	FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) studies the far ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum from high orbit. This range provides an opportunity to...	Past
20030429 April 28, 2003	GALEX Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)  is exploring the origin and evolution of galaxies and the origins of stars and heavy elements, and is also conducting an all-sky...	Operating
19891018 October 18, 1989	Galileo The Galileo mission produced a string of discoveries about asteroids, a fragmented comet, Jupiter's atmosphere, Jupiter's magnetic environment, and especially about the...	Past
20010808 August 08, 2001	Genesis The Genesis mission was designed to collect samples of the charged particles in the solar wind and return them to Earth laboratories for detailed analysis. This mission is...	Past
19850312 March 12, 1985	Geosat The U.S. Navy GEOdetic SATellite, GEOSAT, was launched on 12 March 1985, into an 800-km, 108-deg inclination orbit, carried an altimeter that was capable of measuring the...	Past
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
20090616 19:00:00 USEastern June 16, 2009	GLORY Glory is a remote-sensing Earth-orbiting observatory designed to achieve two separate mission objectives. One is to collect data on the chemical, microphysical, and optical...	Development
19751016 October 16, 1975	GOES A - C The launch of the prototype Synchronous Meteorological Satellite, SMS-A, in May 1974 inaugurated the series of geosynchronous satellites that has provided systematic,...	Past
19800909 September 09, 1980	GOES D - H GOES-4 advanced meteorologists’ capabilities by continuously profiling vertical temperature and water vapor. This major advancement permitted, for the first time, the...	Past
19940413 April 13, 1994	GOES I - M The GOES I-M satellites are the primary element of U.S. weather monitoring and forecast operations and are a key component of NOAA's National Weather Service operations and...	Operating
20060504 May 04, 2006	GOES N - P GOES - N/O/P is the next series of GOES satellites. The multi-mission GOES series N - P will be a vital contributor to weather, solar, and space operations and science. These...	Operating
20130602 June 01, 2013	GPM GPM Constellation follows the success of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) in initiating the measurement of global precipitation, a key climate factor. Its science...	Under Study
20020318 March 17, 2002	GRACE The primary goal of the GRACE mission is to accurately map variations in the Earth's gravity field over its 5-year lifetime. This provides scientists from all over the world...	Operating
20110901 September 01, 2011	GRAIL The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission is a proposed Discovery Program mission to study the lunar interior. This mission is part of SMD's Discovery...	Under Study
20040420 April 20, 2004	Gravity Probe B (GPB) The GP-B satellite was designed as a pristine, space-borne laboratory, whose primary task was to use four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure directly two effects predicted...	Past
19970212 February 12, 1997	HALCA HALCA is a spacecraft with a radio telescope in orbit to co-observe astronomical objects with radio telescopes on Earth. The project synthesizes a radio telescope as large as...	Past
20030509 May 09, 2003	Hayabusa The Hayabusa (formerly Muses-C) mission is to collect a surface sample of material from the small asteroid and return the sample to Earth for analysis....	Operating
20081101 October 31, 2008	Herschel The Herschel Space Observatory is a space-based telescope that will study the Universe by the light of the far-infrared and submillimeter portions of the spectrum. It is...	Development
20001009 20:00:00 GMT-4 October 09, 2000	HETE-2 The High Energy Transient Explorer is a small scientific satellite designed to detect and localize gamma-ray bursts. ...	Past
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
19890808 August 08, 1989	Hipparcos Hipparcos was a European Space Agency mission dedicated to the precise measurement of the positions, parallaxes and proper motions of the stars....	Past
19900425 April 24, 1990	Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope (HST), an ultraviolet, visible and infrared orbiting telescope, has expanded our understanding of star birth, star death, and galaxy evolution, and has...	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
20030113 January 12, 2003	ICESat ICESat (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite) is the benchmark Earth Observing System mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, as well as...	Operating
20150101 2015	ICESat II ICESat (Ice, Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite) is the benchmark Earth Observing System mission for measuring ice sheet mass balance, cloud and aerosol heights, as well as...	Under Study
19981029 October 29, 1998	IEH-3 Seven experiments made up the IEH-3 payload on the STS-95 Space Shuttle mission. The seven hitchhiker experiments were attached to a carrier system in the bay of the Shuttle...	Past
20130101 2013	ILN International Lunar Net-work (ILN), aims to provide an organizing theme for all landed science missions in the 2010s by involving each landed station as a node in a...	Under Study
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
20021018 October 17, 2002	INTEGRAL International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) seeks to unravel the secrets of the highest-energy - and therefore the most violent - phenomena in the Universe....	Operating
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
19951117 November 17, 1995	ISO The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), a project of the European Space Agency (ESA), provided astronomers with a unique facility of unprecedented sensitivity for a detailed...	Past
19780126 January 26, 1978	IUE The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite launched in 1978 and was a unique space observatory in that it was operated like a ground-based observatory....	Past

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