Missions & Programs
Crewed programs, robotic explorers, telescopes, and the stations that keep people living in orbit.
Apollo 11
Apollo 11 was the first crewed Moon landing. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked at Tranquility Base on July 20, 1969, while Michael Collins orbited above.
Artemis program
Artemis is NASA's program to return astronauts to the Moon. Artemis II flew a crewed lunar flyby in April 2026; Artemis IV targets a south pole landing in 2028.
Apollo program
NASA's Apollo program landed 12 astronauts on the Moon across six missions from 1969 to 1972, returning 382 kg of lunar samples at a cost of $25.8 billion.
Cassini-Huygens
Cassini-Huygens orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017, landed the Huygens probe on Titan in 2005, discovered Enceladus plumes, and ended with the Grand Finale.
Commercial Crew Program
NASA's Commercial Crew Program pays SpaceX and Boeing to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, ending US dependence on Russian Soyuz seats.
Curiosity (rover)
NASA's Curiosity rover landed in Gale Crater in August 2012 and is still climbing Mount Sharp, with finds from ancient lakebeds to large organic molecules.
Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper, NASA's largest planetary spacecraft, launched on a Falcon Heavy in October 2024 and will survey Jupiter's moon Europa with 49 flybys from 2030.
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope, launched April 24, 1990, has made nearly 1.7 million observations and still operates in one-gyroscope mode after 36 years.
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a five-agency orbital laboratory continuously occupied since November 2000, with retirement planned for about 2030.
James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope is a 6.5-meter infrared observatory launched December 25, 2021. It observes the earliest galaxies and exoplanet atmospheres.
New Horizons
New Horizons made the first Pluto flyby in July 2015 and the most distant flyby ever at Arrokoth in 2019; it now studies the Kuiper Belt beyond 64 AU.
Perseverance (rover)
NASA's Perseverance rover has explored Jezero Crater on Mars since February 2021, caching samples for return and finding a potential biosignature in 2024.
Starlink
Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet constellation, with about 10,400 satellites in orbit and more than 12 million customers in 160+ countries as of mid-2026.
Voyager program
NASA's twin Voyager probes launched in 1977, toured the outer planets, and now return data from interstellar space more than 21 billion kilometers away.