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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
19961104 November 04, 1996	SAC-B Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas-B was designed to advance the study of solar physics and astrophysics through the examination of solar flares, gamma ray bursts, diffuse...	Past
20011210 December 10, 2001	SAGE III The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III (SAGE III) was an Earth Observing System (EOS) - joint mission between the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration...	Past
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
19780627 June 27, 1978	Seasat 1 The Ocean Dynamics Satellite (Seasat 1) was designed to provide measurements of sea-surface winds, sea-surface temperatures, wave heights, internal waves, atmospheric liquid...	Past
19970801 August 01, 1997	SeaStar (SeaWiFS) The SeaStar satellite carries the SeaWiFS instrument which is designed to monitor the color of the world's oceans. This mission is part of SMD's Earth Systematic Missions...	Operating
20021214 December 14, 2002	SeaWinds (ADEOS II) The SeaWinds scatterometer is a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind velocity (both speed and direction) under all weather and cloud conditions over...	Operating
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
	SIM SIM PlanetQuest (formerly called Space Interferometry Mission), will determine the positions of stars and planets several hundred times more accurately than any previous...	Under Study
19940419 April 19, 1994	SIR-C Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR), part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth, is studying how our global environment is changing. From the unique vantage point of space, the...	Past
20120101 2012	SMAP The Soil Moisture Active-Passive (SMAP) will use a combined radiometer and high-resolution radar to measure surface soil moisture and freeze-thaw state, providing for...	Under Study
19740517 May 17, 1974	SMS The Synchronous Meterological Satellites were the first operational spacecrafts to sense meteorological conditions from a fixed location. They carried instrumentation for...	Past
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
20090602 June 01, 2009	SOFIA SOFIA is an airborne observatory that will study the universe in the infrared spectrum. This mission is part of SMD's Cosmic Origins...	Development
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
20030126 January 25, 2003	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....	Operating
20100101 January 01, 2010	Space Environment Testbeds The Space Environment Testbeds (SET) Project performs flight and ground investigations to understand how the Sun/Earth interactions affect humanity....	Development
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
20030826 August 25, 2003	Spitzer Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly known as SIRTF) conducts infrared astronomy from space. From an unusual heliocentric orbit designed to keep its sensitive instruments away...	Operating
20000211 February 11, 2000	SRTM The goal of SRTM, a joint project of NASA, NIMA, and the German and Italian space agencies, is to map the world in three dimensions. In its 11-day mission on STS-99 in...	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
20061217 December 16, 2006	ST6 ST6 consists of two technologies onboard two different spacecrafts: Autonomous Sciencecraft Constellation and Inertial Stellar...	Past
20091202 December 01, 2009	ST7 Space Technology 7 project will flight test a Disturbance Reduction System (DRS) that will aid scientists in their quest to detect and measure gravitational waves in...	Development
19990207 February 07, 1999	Stardust Stardust is the first U.S. space mission dedicated solely to the exploration of a comet, and the first robotic mission designed to return extraterrestrial material from...	Past
	Stardust-NExT STARDUST-NExT - short for “New Exploration of Tempel-1” is a follow-on mission for STARDUST This mission is part of SMD's Discovery...	Operating
19990605 June 05, 1999	Starshine NASA deployed three Starshine satellites, which were designed by the US Naval Research Laboratory and built by a coalition of...	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
19660530 May 29, 1966	Surveyor Surveyor succeeded the Ranger program. Its primary focus was engineering work in preparation for Apollo, specifically soft landings and lifting off from the moon's...	Past
20050710 July 10, 2005	Suzaku (Astro-E2) Suzaku (formerly Astro-E2) provides powerful tools to use the Universe as a laboratory for unraveling complex, high-energy processes and the behavior of matter under extreme...	Operating
19981206 December 06, 1998	SWAS The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) instrument is a submillimeter wave telescope that incorporates dual heterodyne radiometers and an acousto-optical...	Past
20041121 November 20, 2004	Swift Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer is a three-telescope space observatory for studying the position, brightness, and physical properties of gamma ray bursts. Although gamma ray...	Operating
19991219 December 18, 1999	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...	Operating
19990518 May 18, 1999	TERRIERS TERRIERS was a very small "University-class" Explorer intended to study a number of ionospheric and thermospheric phenomena, and test the utility of long term solar EUV...	Past
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
19600401 April 01, 1960	TIROS TIROS spacecraft were the beginning of a long series of polar-orbiting meteorological satellites. The objective was to establish a global weather satellite...	Past
19960702 20:00:00 GMT-4 July 02, 1996	TOMS-EP The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer, launched in July 1996 onboard an Earth Probe Satellite (TOMS/EP), continues NASA's long-term daily mapping of the global distribution of...	Past
19920810 August 10, 1992	TOPEX/Poseidon TOPEX/Poseidon monitored global ocean circulation, improved global climate predictions, and tracked El Niño conditions and ocean eddies. The mission's most important...	Past
	TPF Terrestrial Planet Finder observatories will study the particular characteristics of many planets outside our solar system: from their formation and development in disks of...	Under Study
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
19971128 November 27, 1997	TRMM TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan. TRMM is particularly devoted to determining rainfall in the tropics and...	Operating
19920626 June 26, 1992	TSS The Tethered Satellite System (TSS) consists of a satellite, a conducting tether, and a tether deployment/retrieval system to be flown on the Space...	Past
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
19910912 September 12, 1991	UARS Launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery on September 15, 1991, UARS orbited the Earth more than 78,000 times, using 10 onboard scientific instruments to collect data on a...	Past
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
19750820 August 20, 1975	Viking 1 - 2 Two Viking spacecraft, each composed of an orbiter and a lander, flew to Mars in the mid 1970's. They measured atmospheric water vapor, did chemical analysis of the soil, and...	Past
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
19990304 March 04, 1999	WIRE The Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) is a Small Explorer Mission designed to study the evolution of starburst galaxies and search for distant ultra-luminous...	Past
20091103 November 02, 2009	WISE WISE is a NASA-funded scientific research project that will provide a vast storehouse of knowledge about the solar system, the Milky Way, and the Universe. Among the objects...	Development
20010701 June 30, 2001	WMAP Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)  produced the earliest “baby picture” of the universe, showing the minute temperature variations within the microwave light...	Operating
19991211 December 10, 1999	XMM-Newton XMM-Newton is an X-ray astrophysics observatory that enables astronomers to conduct sensitive X-ray spectroscopic observations of a wide variety of cosmic sources. This...	Operating

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