1B23 - Space-Based Observatories

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This page aims to provide near-complete lists of solar-system space missions (including solar science), astronomy & physics space missions, and an incomplete but growing list of earth-science/meteorology missions. A separate list of ground-based telescopes is kept here. Comprehensive details of space projects are maintained by the various space agencies (see our list of organizations).

 

SOLAR-SYSTEM SCIENCE:
o ACE
Advanced Composition Explorer; samples low-energy particles of solar origin and high-energy galactic particles
o BEAGLE 2
A lander for the Mars Express mission (2003)
o BEPICOLUMBO
ESA's mission to Mercury (see also Messenger).
o CASSINI
Mission to Saturn; currently in cruise phase, scheduled to arrive 2004 July 1, when it will deploy the Huygens Titan lander.
o CLEMENTINE
`Faster, better, cheaper' lunar exploration (1994)
o CLUSTER II
Studying how the solar wind affects Earth.
o CONTOUR
The ill-fated Comet Nucleus Tour
o DAWN
Dawn's goal is to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch
o DEEP IMPACT
The first mission aiming to create a crater on a cometary body
o GALILEO
Journey to Jupiter (and its satellite system).
o GENESIS
NASA's Discovery mission for in-situ sampling of the solar wind
o GIOTTO
ESA mission to Comet Halley
o HETE-2
High Energy Transient Explorer
o HUYGENS
Titan lander, part of the Cassini mission.
o KEPLER
"A search for habitable planets"
o LUNAR PROSPECTOR
Mapping the moon (1998 January--1999 July)
o MAGELLAN
Mission to Venus (1990-1994)
o MARS EXPRESS
ESA's mission to Mars (2003)
o 2001 MARS ODYSSEY
NASA mission to map the amount and distribution of chemical elements and minerals that make up the Martian surface.
o MARS SURVEYOR '98
Comprising Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander
   Climate orbiter failed to deploy [full story]
o MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR
High-resolution surface mapping
o MARS PATHFINDER
Pictures from the Sagan Memorial Station (1997-1998).
o MESSENGER
NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging mission.
o NetLander 2007
The NetLander 2007 Mars mission will focus on investigations of the interior of the planet and the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere.
o NOZOMI
Nozomi (Planet-B) is the first Japanese Mars orbiter
o NEAR
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous
o PIONEER
The Pioneer spacecraft were among the first to explore the solar system
o POLAR
The Polar spacecraft was launched to obtain data from the polar region of geospace.
o RHESSI
The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager
o ROSETTA
Rendezvous with a comet.
o RXTE
The Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
o SOHO
The SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory
o SOLAR-B
Studying the solar origins of space weather and global change
o SORCE
The Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment
o STARDUST
Return of a sample of cometary material to Earth.
o STEREO
Two identically equipped spacecraft to provide revolutionary 3-D imaging of coronal mass ejections
o TIMED
To understand the influence of the Sun on Earth's atmosphere
o TRACE
Transition Region and Coronal Explorer: exploring the three-dimensional magnetic structures that emerge through the visible surface of the Sun.
o ULYSSES
Charting the solar wind.
o VENUS EXPRESS
ESA's first mission to Earth's nearest planetary neighbour
o VOYAGER
The 'greatest space adventurer', and groundbreaking planetary exploration mission
o YOHKOH
An observatory for studying X-rays and gamma-rays from the Sun.



ASTRONOMY & PHYSICS MISSIONS:
o ASCA
ASCA (Astro-D) was Japan's Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics
o ASTRO-E2
Japanese X-ray astronomy satellite (Goddard web site; the original Astro-E was lost on launch).
o BeppoSAX
The BeppoSAX mission (Satellite per Astronomia X, "Beppo" in honor of Giuseppe Occhialini) is distinguished by its wide spectral coverage.
o BOOMERAnG
Balloon Observations Of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation And Geophysics (a balloon-borne CMB experiment)
o CGRO
The Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (1991-2000)
o CHANDRA
The Advanced X-ray Astronomy Facility, AXAF
o CHIPS
The Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer
o COROT
'COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits' – designed to detect tiny changes in brightness from nearby stars.
o DARWIN
Infrared space interferometry, looking for signs of life on Earth-like planets.
o EDDINGTON
ESA's photometric planet-search mission [Cancelled]
o EUVE
The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer mission
o FIRST
Renamed Herschel, this mission is designed to explore the mm and far-IR spectral regions.
o FUSE
The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) is NASA mission to observe in the far UV. Launched 1999 June, operated from John-Hopkins University Baltimore.
o GAIA
The next generation astrometry mission, a successor to Hipparcos
o GALEX
Galaxy Evolution Explorer – mapping the history of star formation in the universe.
o HALCA
Halca (Muses-B) is a Japanese satellte, and the first dedicated to Very Long Baseline Interferometry.
o HERSCHEL
Herschel (formerly known as FIRST) is designed to explore the mm and far-IR spectral regions.
o HIPPARCOS
An extremely successful astrometry mission
o HST: the Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a NASA 2.4m UV/optical/near-IR telescope operated by the STScI in Baltimore. Information is also available from the European Coordinating Facility in Garching or UK Support Facility in Cambridge.
o INTEGRAL
Gamma-Ray Observatory
o ISO: the Infrared Space Observatory
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was an ESA mission covering the mid to far IR. The WWW server is maintained in Villafranca Madrid.
o IUE: the International Ultraviolet Explorer
The IUE satellite was a joint project between NASA, ESA and PPARC and collected low and high dispersion spectroscopy in the range 1150-3200A, between Jan 1978 and Sep 1996, when it was terminated. There is an extensive archive maintained at STScI, while the UK Support includes details about the `IUE Newly Extracted Spectra' (INES) archive.
o JWST: the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA's next-generation Space Telescope (and formerly known as the NGST), which is being developed to replace the HST and to observe the distant universe.
o KEPLER
"A search for habitable planets"
o LISA
The Laser Interferometry Space Antenna, searching for gravitational waves.
o MAP
The Microwave Anisotropy Probe (see also PLANCK), renamed the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
o MAXIMA
The Millimeter Anisotropy eXperiment IMaging Array (balloon-borne)
o ODIN
A Swedish small satellite project for astronomical and atmospheric research
o PLANCK
Imaging the Cosmic Microwave Background (see also MAP and BOOMERANG).
o ROSAT
An X-ray/EUV satellite (1990-1999)
o Spitzer Space Telescope
The Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly know as SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility), launched in 2003, observes the IR between 3 and 180 micron, with a 0.85m primary mirror, the largest IR telescope ever launched into space.
o SOFIA
A joint NASA-DLR observatory which will be mounted in a modified Boeing 747-SP to observe at infrared wavelengths above the bulk of the Earth's atmosphere (SOFIA stands for Stratospheric Observatory for IR astronomy).
o Space VLBI
Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry
o SPIDR
Spectroscopy and Photometry of the Intergalactic medium's Diffuse Radiation
o STEP
Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle
o SWAS
The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite
o Swift
'Catching gamma-ray bursts on the fly'
o WIRE
The Wide-field InfraRed Explorer
o WMAP
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe.
o XMM-Newton
A powerful observatory for X-ray astronomy, the X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM-Newton) telescope, was launched in 1999 December ( UK XMM Guest Observer Support Facility.)



EARTH-SCIENCE MISSIONS:
[under construction]
o CHAMP
CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload: a German small satellite mission for geoscientific and atmospheric research and applications.
o CORIOLIS
A 3-year meteorological science mission to demonstrate the viability of using polarimetry to measure ocean surface wind speed and direction from space
o CRYOSAT
A three-year radar altimetry mission
o GFO
Geosat Follow-On mission
o GOCE
The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Mission
o IMAGE
Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration
o Jason-1
The first follow-on to the TOPEX/Poseidon mission
o POLAR
The Polar spacecraft was launched to obtain data from the polar region of geospace.
o TOPEX/Poseidon
A joint venture between CNES and NASA to map ocean surface topography.
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