Sourced catalog
Mission directory
Search names and vehicles, then combine destination, agency, mission type, outcome, launch year, and trajectory filters. Your view stays in the URL.
308 records
Snapshot 2026-10-12
Filters1 active
Active filters: NASA-Office of Space Science
Open the explorerNot carried: NASA-Office of Space Science.
Launched 1999
Lost · FailureA pair of small probes, the Deep Space 2 Mars Microprobes, attached to the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft and to be deployed to fall and penetrate beneath the martian surface when the spacecraft reached Mars. NSSDCA gives Deep Space 2 an entry of its own while describing it as a penetrator mission flying aboard the Mars Polar Lander, and NSSDCA's chronology of Mars exploration classifies it Attempted Mars Penetrators. The two 3.5 kg microprobes were to be dropped from the cruise stage into the martian atmosphere about 18 seconds after the cruise stage was jettisoned, targeted at the southern polar layered terrain; because contact with Mars Polar Lander was lost before atmospheric entry, it is not known whether any of that took place as designed.
- Agency
- NASA-Office of Space Science
- Destination
- Mars
- Trajectory
- Trajectory unavailable
Launched 1999
Lost · FailureThe Mars Surveyor '98 program is comprised of two spacecraft launched separately, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander, designed to study the Martian weather, climate, and water and carbon dioxide budget in order to understand the reservoirs, behavior, and atmospheric role of volatiles and to search for evidence of long-term and episodic climate changes. The Mars Polar Lander was to touch down on the southern polar layered terrain, between 73 S and 76 S, less than 1000 km from the south pole, near the edge of the carbon dioxide ice cap in Mars' late southern spring. The last telemetry from Mars Polar Lander was sent just prior to atmospheric entry on 3 December 1999. No further signals have been received from the lander, the cause of this loss of communication is not known.
- Agency
- NASA-Office of Space Science
- Destination
- Mars
- Trajectory
- Estimated trajectory
Launched 1998
Completed · SuccessA NASA orbiter that surveyed the Moon's composition and polar hydrogen before being deliberately crashed into a south polar crater.
- Agency
- NASA-Office of Space Science
- Destination
- Moon
- Trajectory
- Estimated trajectory
Launched 1996
Completed · SuccessThe Mars Pathfinder was the second of NASA's low-cost planetary Discovery missions to be launched. The mission consists of a stationary lander and a surface rover, and had the primary objective of demonstrating the feasibility of low-cost landings on and exploration of the Martian surface. The spacecraft entered the Martian atmosphere on 4 July 1997 directly from its approach hyperbola at about 7300 m/s according to NSSDCA; NASA PDS describes the entry-capsule speed as 7.6 km/s. These source values are kept attributed because their exact state epochs are not reconciled. It did not go into orbit around Mars, and the airbag-encased lander bounced about 12 meters into the air, bouncing at least another 15 times and rolling before coming to rest. Images were taken and experiments performed by the lander and rover until 27 September 1997 when communications were lost for unknown reasons. The lander has been named the Sagan Memorial Station.
- Agency
- NASA-Office of Space Science
- Destination
- Mars
- Trajectory
- Predicted trajectory
Launched 1996
Completed · SuccessMars Global Surveyor (MGS) studied Mars’s surface, topography, composition, gravity, atmosphere, and magnetic field. It entered Mars orbit on 12 September 1997 and operated there for more than nine years, mapping the planet after an extended aerobraking campaign necessitated by incomplete deployment of one solar panel. Its primary mapping mission covered one Martian year; extended operations continued until its last communication on 2 November 2006.
- Agency
- NASA-Office of Space Science
- Destination
- Mars
- Trajectory
- Reconstructed trajectory
Launched 1973
Completed · SuccessA radio astronomy observatory placed in lunar orbit so that the Moon would shield it from terrestrial radio interference.
- Agency
- NASA-Office of Space Science
- Destination
- Moon
- Trajectory
- Reconstructed trajectory