Small Bodies of the Solar System - Science Mission Directorate

Small Bodies of the Solar System Missions

Planetary exploration missions are conducted by some of the most sophisticated robots ever built. Through them we extend our senses to the farthest reaches of the Solar System and into remote and hostile environments, where the secrets of our origins and destiny lie hidden.

Report of the Cassini Extended Mission Senior Review Board - March 8, 2007

*Sort missions by clicking Launch Date, A-Z, or PHASE column headers.

Launch Date	A-Z	Phase
20070928 September 27, 2007	Dawn The Dawn mission intends to orbit Vesta and Ceres, two of the largest asteroids in the solar system. According to current theories, the very different properties of Vesta and...	Operating
20050112 January 12, 2005	Deep Impact The Deep Impact mission was selected as a Discovery mission in 1999. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket on January 12, 2005 and left Earth’s orbit toward...	Operating
	Deep Impact Epoxi Extrasolar Planet Observation and Deep Impact Extended Investigation EPOXI is a follow-on mission to Deep Impact. This mission is part of SMD's Discovery...	Operating
19891018 October 18, 1989	Galileo The Galileo mission produced a string of discoveries about asteroids, a fragmented comet, Jupiter's atmosphere, Jupiter's magnetic environment, and especially about the...	Past
19960217 February 17, 1996	NEAR-Shoemaker As the first spacecraft to orbit and land on an asteroid, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker mission continues to answer fundamental questions about the nature and...	Past
20040303 March 02, 2004	Rosetta The Rosetta Orbiter will study the origin of comets, the relationship between cometary and interstellar material and its implications with regard to the origin of the Solar...	Operating
19990207 February 07, 1999	Stardust Stardust is the first U.S. space mission dedicated solely to the exploration of a comet, and the first robotic mission designed to return extraterrestrial material from...	Past
	Stardust-NExT STARDUST-NExT - short for “New Exploration of Tempel-1” is a follow-on mission for STARDUST This mission is part of SMD's Discovery...	Operating

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Sections

NASA Science

Personal tools

Small Bodies of the Solar System Missions