# The Space Wiki > An independent encyclopedia of space exploration: agencies, rockets, missions, people, and destinations, from Sputnik to Starship, verified and kept current. Text is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; please attribute "The Space Wiki (thespacewiki.com)". ## Agencies & Companies - [SpaceX](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/spacex): SpaceX is an American spacecraft manufacturer and launch provider that builds Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon, Starlink, and Starship, the largest rocket ever flown. - [Blue Origin](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/blue_origin): Blue Origin is Jeff Bezos's spaceflight company, builder of the New Shepard suborbital vehicle, the New Glenn orbital rocket, and Blue Moon lunar landers. - [China National Space Administration](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/cnsa): The China National Space Administration directs China's civil space effort: Chang'e Moon sample returns, Tianwen probes, and a crewed landing goal by 2030. - [European Space Agency](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/european_space_agency): The European Space Agency, founded in 1975 with 23 member states, develops Ariane rockets, flies JUICE, Euclid, and Hera, and builds Orion's service module. - [ISRO](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/isro): ISRO is India's national space agency, known for the Chandrayaan-3 Moon landing, Aditya-L1 solar observatory, LVM3 rocket, and the Gaganyaan crew program. - [JAXA](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/jaxa): JAXA is Japan's space agency, operator of the SLIM Moon lander, Hayabusa asteroid sample returns, the H3 rocket, and the MMX mission to Phobos. - [NASA](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/nasa): NASA is the United States civil space agency, founded in 1958, that ran Apollo and the shuttle and now leads the Artemis lunar program and a science fleet. - [Rocket Lab](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/rocket_lab): Rocket Lab is a US launch and space systems company founded by Peter Beck, operator of the Electron small rocket and developer of the reusable Neutron. - [Roscosmos](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/roscosmos): Roscosmos is Russia's state space corporation, heir to the Soviet program, operating Soyuz flights, the ISS Russian segment, and the Luna-Glob lunar series. ## Rockets & Vehicles - [Starship](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/starship): Starship is SpaceX's fully reusable super heavy-lift rocket and the largest ever flown, with twelve test flights since 2023 and a Version 3 debut in May 2026. - [Ariane 6](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/ariane_6): Ariane 6 is Europe's expendable heavy launcher, flown since July 2024 in A62 and A64 versions. It launches Amazon Leo satellites and ESA missions. - [Electron](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/electron): Electron is Rocket Lab's small-lift launcher, a carbon composite rocket with electric-pump Rutherford engines that has flown 91 times since 2017. - [Falcon 9](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/falcon_9): Falcon 9 is SpaceX's partially reusable two-stage rocket and the most-flown American launch vehicle, with 670 Falcon family flights as of June 2026. - [Falcon Heavy](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/falcon_heavy): Falcon Heavy is SpaceX's three-core heavy-lift rocket, flown 12 times since its 2018 debut with launches including Psyche, Europa Clipper, and GOES-U. - [New Glenn](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/new_glenn): New Glenn is Blue Origin's heavy-lift rocket with a reusable first stage. It reached orbit in January 2025 and landed its booster on its second flight. - [Saturn V](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/saturn_v): Saturn V was the NASA rocket that launched the Apollo Moon missions and Skylab, flying 13 times from 1967 to 1973 without losing a crew or payload. - [Soyuz](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/soyuz): Soyuz is the Russian rocket family descended from the 1957 R-7 missile. With well over 1,700 flights it is the most-launched orbital rocket line in history. - [Space Launch System](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/space_launch_system): The Space Launch System is NASA's super-heavy Artemis Moon rocket. It flew uncrewed in 2022 and carried the Artemis II crew around the Moon in April 2026. - [Vulcan Centaur](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/vulcan_centaur): Vulcan Centaur is ULA's successor to Atlas V and Delta IV, flown since January 2024 with Blue Origin BE-4 engines and the Centaur V upper stage. ## Missions & Programs - [Apollo 11](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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)](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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)](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/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. ## People - [Buzz Aldrin](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/buzz_aldrin): Buzz Aldrin (born 1930) is an American astronaut and engineer who flew Gemini 12 and Apollo 11, becoming the second person to walk on the Moon in 1969. - [Elon Musk](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/elon_musk): Elon Musk (born 1971) is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX, leading its reusable rockets, Starlink, and Starship programs aimed at Mars. - [Katherine Johnson](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/katherine_johnson): Katherine Johnson (1918-2020) was a NASA mathematician whose trajectory calculations supported Mercury, Apollo 11, and Apollo 13, honored in Hidden Figures. - [Neil Armstrong](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/neil_armstrong): Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) was an American test pilot and NASA astronaut who commanded Apollo 11 and became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. - [Sally Ride](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/sally_ride): Sally Ride (1951-2012) was a physicist and NASA astronaut who became the first American woman in space on STS-7 in 1983 and later led STEM education efforts. - [Valentina Tereshkova](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/valentina_tereshkova): Valentina Tereshkova (born 1937) is a Soviet cosmonaut who became the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6 in 1963 and remains the only woman to fly solo. - [Yuri Gagarin](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/yuri_gagarin): Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968) was a Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human in space on April 12, 1961, orbiting Earth once aboard Vostok 1 in 108 minutes. ## Concepts & Technology - [How rockets work](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/how_rockets_work): How rockets work: Newton's third law, the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, staging, propellant types, engine cycles, and why orbit is about sideways speed. - [Mars colonization](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/mars_colonization): Mars colonization faces radiation, toxic dust, low gravity, and cost hurdles; SpaceX targets Starship landings and NASA pursues a Moon-first path. - [Orbital mechanics](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/orbital_mechanics): Orbital mechanics explains how spacecraft move: Kepler's laws, delta-v budgets, Hohmann transfers, gravity assists, Lagrange points, and rendezvous. - [Reusable rockets](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/reusable_rockets): Reusable launch vehicles recover and refly rocket stages: one Falcon 9 booster has flown 35 missions; New Glenn, Starship, and Zhuque-3 follow. - [Space debris](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/space_debris): Space debris includes over 40,000 tracked objects and millions of fragments; collisions and mega-constellations drive mitigation rules and cleanup missions. - [Space tourism](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/space_tourism): Space tourism began with Dennis Tito's 2001 ISS visit and now spans suborbital hops and private orbital missions, with prices from $750,000 to $70 million. - [The Space Race](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/space_race): The Space Race was the 1955-1975 US-Soviet competition that produced Sputnik, Gagarin's flight, and the Apollo Moon landings before ending in detente. ## Destinations - [Asteroid belt](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/asteroid_belt): The asteroid belt is a sparse ring of rocky bodies between Mars and Jupiter, home to Ceres and Vesta and the source of most near-Earth asteroids. - [Europa](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/europa): Europa is Jupiter's fourth-largest moon, an ice-covered world with a global subsurface ocean targeted by NASA's Europa Clipper and ESA's Juice missions. - [Mars](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/mars): Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, a cold desert world with evidence of ancient water, explored today by six orbiters and two active NASA rovers. - [The Moon](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/the_moon): The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite, shaped by a giant impact 4.5 billion years ago and now the focus of renewed crewed and robotic exploration. - [Titan](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/titan): Titan is Saturn's largest moon, with a thick nitrogen atmosphere, methane lakes, and a buried water ocean, and is the target of NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft. - [Venus](https://thespacewiki.com/wiki/venus): Venus is the second planet from the Sun, a runaway greenhouse world hot enough to melt lead, explored by Soviet landers and targeted by new missions. ## Other pages - [Timeline of space exploration](https://thespacewiki.com/timeline): Major milestones from 1957 to today. - [Guides](https://thespacewiki.com/guides): Structured reading paths (Artemis, rockets from zero, Mars exploration). - [Compare](https://thespacewiki.com/compare): Side-by-side comparisons (Starship vs Saturn V, Hubble vs Webb, and more). - [Glossary](https://thespacewiki.com/glossary): Plain-language definitions of spaceflight terms. - [Upcoming launches](https://thespacewiki.com/launches): The next launches worldwide, refreshed hourly. - [Editorial policy](https://thespacewiki.com/editorial-policy): How facts are verified and corrected. - [About](https://thespacewiki.com/about): Editorial approach and licensing.