Science Missions - NASA Science

Featured Missions

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

A montage of the Webb Space Telescope over a composited background of stars and galaxies.

James Webb Space Telescope

Webb is celebrating one year of incredible discoveries, from exoplanets to the early Universe.

An artistic visualization of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft hovering above the surface of Asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft is silver, shiny with two wings on the top and a long extension from the bottom.

OSIRIS-REx

OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to collect samples from an asteroid. It returned the samples to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, kicking off an exciting autumn of asteroid milestones!

Parker Solar Probe orbiting over The Sun.

Parker Solar Probe

Parker just completed its 16^th orbit, moving ever closer to the surface of the Sun. Celebrate this mission and others with the Heliophysics Big Year, beginning in October 2023.

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.

An infographic displaying all of the NASA Science mission fleet spacecraft in their approximate location in our universe.

Updated October 2023

All Science Missions

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Cosmos With a Stratospheric Balloon

ASTHROS

a diagram of the ARIEL satellite

Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey

BECCAL

an illustration of GLIDE

Carruthers Geocorona Observatory

an illustration of chandrayaan-3 on the moon

Chandrayaan-3

Lunar Lander / Rover (India)

CLARREO

COSI

Round probe descending to Venus with hazy yellowish sky and mountains in background

DAVINCI

Dragonfly

Illustration showing EnVision in front of alternate versions of Venus. One version is warm and wet. The other is the rugged wasteland we know today.

EnVision

EscaPADE

EscaPADE

The silver-colored Europa Clipper sits on a work stand in a clean room. Workers in protective clothing stand nearby.

Europa Clipper

Europa Clipper will search for signs of potential habitability on Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa.

Illustration of a spacecraft with a yellow and green image of the sun in the background; the text reads EUVST: extreme ultraviolet high-throughput spectroscopic telescope

EUVST

Extreme Ultraviolet High-Throughput Spectroscopic Telescope Epsilon Mission (EUVST) will expand how NASA studies the Sun, space, and Earth as an…

Rover on Mars.

ExoMars Rover

Goals The ExoMars rover will search for signs of life on Mars. A Russian science platform will land with it.…

Artist concept of spacecraft scanning the green surface of the sun; text reads EZIE: Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer

EZIE

The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer, EZIE, is a heliophysics mission recently approved to explore the Sun and the system that…

GDC mission

GDC

GLIMR

A white airplane sits on the snow at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Workers, some wearing orange vests, stand near a big white cargo container which is in the tail of the plane. Several smaller yellow and orange containers are behind the white container. They are wrapped in netting. Some brown boxes under plastic are strapped down behind the other containers.

GUSTO

GUSTO is a scientific balloon mission that will measure emissions from the interstellar medium, the material between stars.

Image of 9 illustrated satellites against a blue atmospheric background with the title HelioSwarm and subtitle The Nature of Turbulence in Space Plasm

HelioSwarm

HelioSwarm mission will help improve our understanding of the dynamics of the Sun, the Sun-Earth connection, and the constantly changing…

HERMES spacecraft

HERMES

HERMES is and instrument package that will be placed upon the Gateway, an orbital outpost which will support Artemis lunar…

IMAP spacecraft artist's concept

IMAP

IINCUS diagram

INCUS

Pair of gloved hands holding a rectangular clear manifold containing two black square fluidic cards. Tubes filled with blue dye are connected to the manifold.

LEIA

LISA

Lunar Trailblazer

MAIA

Mars Sample Return

Mars Sample Return (MSR) would be NASA's and ESA’s (European Space Agency) ambitious, multi-mission campaign to bring carefully selected samples…

Spacecraft over Mars moon.

MMX

Japan's MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) will study Mars' small moons Phobos and Deimos, collect a sample of one of them…

Image of a spacecraft with an illustrated yellow to orange gradient sun in the background; the text reads Muse Observing the Sun's Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation

MUSE

The Multi-slit Solar Explorer (MUSE) mission will help scientists understand the forces driving the heating of the Sun’s corona and…

Artist Rendering of NISAR

NISAR

Artist's concept of PACE spacecraft

PACE

PACE will help us better understand our ocean and atmosphere by measuring key variables associated with cloud formation, particles and…

PREFIRE

PREFIRE mission website – University of Wisconsin Launch dates scheduled for May 2024 – University of Wisconsin NASA Announces Launch…

PUNCH

Q-PACE

Roman

Hardware Highlight : Fall 2023

SPHEREx

SunRISE

TSIS-2

VERITAS

Venus Orbiter

An artist's concept of NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover

VIPER

Overview NASA’s Artemis lunar rover, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER, will explore the relatively nearby but extreme…

XRISM