Science Missions - NASA Science

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Featured Missions

Our mission milestones showcase the breadth and depth of NASA science.

All Science Missions

An illustration showing the 2 TRACERS spacecraft. Filling the bottom half of the landscape image is a cloudy Earth. Behind Earth, the bright Sun is peaking out, filling the dark expanse of space with streaks of white light. The two spacecraft orbit above Earth, large hexagonal cylinders with long poles sticking out horizontally in 4 directions.

TRACERS

TRACERS will study magnetic reconnection—when solar activity disrupts Earth’s magnetic field—to help scientists better understand and prepare for the effects of space weather.

More about TRACERS

Illustration of a spacecraft at an asteroid.

Lucy

The Lucy mission captured stunning, detailed images of asteroid Donaldjohanson during a fly by on April 20, 2025, as the spacecraft heads towards the distant Trojan asteroids.

More about Lucy

A silver, wedge-shaped spacecraft with a black telescope on the front, hovers against the darkness of space.

NEO Surveyor

NEO Surveyor is expected to launch no earlier than September 2027. It is the first space telescope specifically designed to hunt asteroids and comets that may be potential hazards to Earth.

More about NEO Surveyor

Mission News

More Mission News

NASA Tests Scalable Satellite Tech to Launch Sensors Quicker

NASA’s TRACERS Mission Targeting Launch on July 22

Heart Scans, Hearing Tests Wrap Week as Station Gears Up for Crew Swap

NASA Conducts Solar Array Testing on Interstellar Mapping Spacecraft

Eye on Infinity: NASA Celebrates Hubble’s 35th Year in Orbit

In celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope’s 35 years in Earth orbit, NASA is releasing an assortment of compelling images recently taken by Hubble, stretching from the planet Mars to star-forming regions, and a neighboring galaxy.

Composite shows four Hubble images in quarters. At top left is a crisp view of Mars in shades of orange, blues, and browns. At top right is planetary nebula NGC 2899, which is shaped like a single macaroni noodle, with its central torus appearing semi-transparent and blue and green, and its top and bottom edges in orange. At bottom left is a tiny portion of the Rosette Nebula. Very dark gray material shaped like a triangle takes up the center. At bottom right is barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 with a milky yellow center that forms a bar surrounded by multiple blue star-filled spiral arms that wrap up counterclockwise.

A selection of photogenic space targets to celebrate the 35th anniversary of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Upper left: Mars. Upper right: planetary nebula NGC 2899. Lower left: a small portion of the Rosette Nebula. Lower right: barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335.

Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Featured Video

Cosmic Dawn Trailer

The documentary brings viewers on an unprecedented journey through Webb’s delicate assembly, rigorous testing, and triumphant launch, showcasing the sheer complexity and breathtaking risks involved in creating a telescope capable of peering billions of years into the past. Follow the telescope from an idea developed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center all the way to the launchpad in French Guiana, with never-before-seen footage captured by the Webb film crew offering intimate access to the challenges and triumphs along the way.

Learn more about Cosmic Dawn

NASA Science Fleet Chart

NASA Science missions circle the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, and many other destinations within our Solar System, including spacecraft that look out even further into our universe. The Science Fleet depicts the scope of NASA’s activity and how our missions have permeated throughout the solar system.

Download the Science Fleet Chart

An infographic displaying NASA’s Science Fleet with missions organized around their objects of study. The graphic includes both operating and future missions. A key denotes missions by color with Heliophysics missions in yellow, Earth missions in green, Astrophysics missions in blue, Planetary missions in purple, and Biological and Physical Sciences missions in orange.

Updated July 2024