Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes

This timeline of artificial satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

s and space probe
Space probe
A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to...

s includes unmanned spacecraft including technology demonstrators, observatories, lunar probes, and interplanetary probes. First satellites from each country are included. Not included are most earth science satellites

Timeline of Earth science satellites

The Timeline of Earth science satellites shows, in chronological order, those successful satellites with a program of Earth science. Sputnik 1, while the first satellite ever launched, did not conduct Earth science. Explorer 1 was the first satellite to make an Earth science discovery when it found...

, commercial satellites or manned missions. List is not yet complete and can become out-of-date.
Key: Year - Origin - Target - Status - Description

1950s

1957 - Soviet Union - Earth - Success - Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 ) was the first artificial satellite to be put into Earth's orbit. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957. The unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1s success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the Space...

is launched, the first Earth orbiting
1957 - Soviet Union - Earth - Success - Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2
Sputnik 2 , or Prosteyshiy Sputnik 2 ), was the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit, on November 3, 1957, and the first to carry a living animal, a dog named Laika. Sputnik 2 was a 4-meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters...

orbital dog
1958 - United States - Earth - Failure - Vanguard TV3
Vanguard TV3
Vanguard TV3 was the first attempt of the United States to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth. It was a small satellite designed to test the launch capabilities of the three-stage Vanguard rocket and study the effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earth orbit...
1958 - United States - Earth - Success - Explorer 1
1958 - United States - Earth - Failure - Explorer 2
Explorer 2
Explorer 2 was to be a repeat of the Explorer 1 mission. However, due to a failure in the rocket during launch, the spacecraft did not reach orbit....
1958 - United States - Earth - Success - Vanguard 1
Vanguard 1
Vanguard 1 was the fourth artificial Earth satellite launched and the first satellite to be solar powered. Although communication with it was lost in 1964, it remains the oldest manmade satellite still in orbit...

oldest satellite still orbiting Earth (as of August 2011).
1958 - United States - Earth - Success - Explorer 3
Explorer 3
Explorer 3 was an artificial satellite of the Earth, nearly identical to the first United States artificial satellite Explorer 1 in its design and mission...

First satellite to carry a tape recorder allowing delayed transmission of data to ground stations.
1958 - Soviet Union - Earth - Success - Sputnik 3
Sputnik 3
Sputnik 3 was a Soviet satellite launched on May 15, 1958 from Baikonur cosmodrome by a modified R-7/SS-6 ICBM. It was a research satellite to explore the upper atmosphere and the near space, and carried a large array of instruments for geophysical research....
1958 - United States - Earth - Success - Explorer 4
Explorer 4
Explorer 4 was a US satellite launched on July 26, 1958. It was instrumented by Dr. James van Allen's group. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency had initially planned two satellites for the purposes of studying the Van Allen radiation belts and the effects of nuclear...

elliptical, includes orbiter
1958 - United States - Earth - Failure - Explorer 5
Explorer 5
Explorer 5 was a United States satellite with a weight of 17.24 kg.It launched atop a Jupiter-C rocket on August 24, 1958 from Launch Complex 5, but failed when the rocket's booster collided with its second stage after separation, causing the upper stage firing angle to be off.- References :...
1958 - United States - Moon - Failure - Pioneer 1
Pioneer 1
On October 11, 1958, Pioneer 1 became the first spacecraft launched by NASA, the newly formed space agency of the United States. The flight was the second and most successful of the three Thor-Able space probes.- Spacecraft design :...

orbiter
1958 - United States - Moon - Failure - Pioneer 3
Pioneer 3
Pioneer 3 was a spin stabilized spacecraft launched at 05:45:12 UTC on 6 December 1958 by the U.S. Army Ballistic Missile Agency in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration...

flyby
1958 - United States - Earth - Success - Project SCORE
Project SCORE
Project SCORE was the world’s first communications satellite. Launched aboard an Atlas rocket on December 18, 1958, SCORE provided a first test of a communications relay system in space, as well as the first successful use of the Atlas as a launch vehicle...

first communications satellite, broadcasts President's Christmas message.
1959 - United States - Earth - Success - Explorer 6
Explorer 6
Explorer 6 was a United States satellite launched on August 7, 1959. It was a small, spheroidal satellite designed to study trapped radiation of various energies, galactic cosmic rays, geomagnetism, radio propagation in the upper atmosphere, and the flux of micrometeorites...

first pictures of Earth from orbit
1959 - United States - Earth - Success - Explorer 7
Explorer 7
Explorer 7 was launched October 13, 1959 at 10:36 a.m. Eastern Time by a Juno II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to an orbit of 573 km by 1073 km and inclination of 50.27°. It was designed to measure solar x-ray and Lyman-alpha flux, trapped energetic particles, and heavy...
1959 - Soviet Union - Moon - Partial Success - Luna 1
Luna 1
Luna 1 , first known as First Cosmic Ship, then known as Mechta was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and the first of the Luna program of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon.While traveling through the outer Van Allen...

lunar impactor is launched but misses target and enters heliocentric orbit. It discovered solar wind
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
1959 - United States - Earth - Success - Vanguard 2
Vanguard 2
Vanguard 2 or Vanguard II is an earth-orbiting satellite launched February 17, 1959 aboard a Vanguard SLV 4 rocket as part of the United States Navy's Project Vanguard...
1959 - United States - Moon - Partial success - Pioneer 4
Pioneer 4
Pioneer 4 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first U.S. probe to escape from the Earth's gravity. It carried a payload similar to Pioneer 3: a lunar radiation environment experiment using a...

flyby
1959 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 2
Luna 2
Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon...

impactor launched, it was the first spacecraft to impact onto the surface of the moon
1959 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 3
Luna 3
The Soviet space probe Luna 3 of 1959 was the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon, and this mission was an early feat in the spaceborne exploration of outer space...

flyby launched, it returned the first image of the Moon's hidden side.
1959 - United States - Earth - Success - Vanguard 3
Vanguard 3
Vanguard 3 is a scientific satellite that was launched into Earth orbit by a Vanguard rocket on September 18, 1959, the third successful Vanguard launch out of eleven attempts.-Mission Objectives:...

1960s

1960 - United States - Sun - Success - Pioneer 5
Pioneer 5
Pioneer 5 was a spin-stabilized space probe in the NASA Pioneer program used to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. It was launched on March 11, 1960 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17a at 13:00:00 UTC with an on-orbit dry mass of 43 kg...

solar monitor
1960 - United States - Earth - Success - TIROS 1 weather satellite
Weather satellite
The weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while...
1960 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Mars 1960A probe
1960 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Mars 1960B probe
1960 - United States - Earth - Failure - Courier 1A communications
1960 - United States - Earth - Success - Courier 1B communications
1961 - Soviet Union - Venus - Failure - 1VA (proto-Venera
Venera
The Venera series probes were developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather data from Venus, Venera being the Russian name for Venus...

) flyby
1961 - Soviet Union - Venus - Failure - Venera 1
Venera 1
On February 12, 1961, 00:34:36 UTC, was the first planetary probe launched to Venus by the Soviet Union. The Venus-1 Automatic Interplanetary Station, or Venera 1, was a 643.5 kg probe consisting of a cylindrical body 1.05 metres in diameter topped by a dome, totalling 2.035 metres...

flyby
1961 - United States - Earth - Success - OSCAR
OSCAR
OSCAR is an acronym for Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio. OSCAR series satellites use amateur radio frequencies to facilitate communication between amateur radio stations. These satellites can be used for free by licensed amateur radio operators for voice and data communications...

1 First Amateur Satellite
1962 - United States - Venus - Success - Mariner 2
Mariner 2
Mariner 2 , an American space probe to Venus, was the first space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter . The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program, it was a simplified version of the Block I spacecraft of the Ranger program and an exact copy of Mariner 1...

launched and became the first satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

to return data about Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
1962 - United States - Earth - Success - Telstar 1 is launched
1962 - - Earth - Success - Ariel 1
Ariel 1
Ariel 1, also known as UK-1 and S-55, was the first British satellite, and the first satellite in the Ariel programme. Its launch in 1962 made the United Kingdom the third country to operate a satellite, after the Soviet Union and the USA...

, launched on US rocket, first UK satellite, first satellite operated by a country other than the United States or Soviet Union.
1962 - Canada - Earth - Success - Alouette 1
Alouette 1
Alouette 1 was Canada's first satellite, and the first satellite constructed by a country other than the USSR or the United States. Occasionally, Alouette 1 is misrepresented as the third satellite successfully put in orbit, rather than being from the third country to have one of its own in space,...

is launched, the first Canadian satellite, first satellite built by a country other than the United States or Soviet Union.
1962 - United States - Moon - Failure - Ranger 3
Ranger 3
Ranger 3 is a spacecraft of the Ranger program that was launched to study the Moon on January 26, 1962. The space probe was designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to impacting on the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer...

photographic mission
1962 - United States - Moon - Partial Failure - Ranger 4
Ranger 4
Ranger 4 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to crashing upon the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar...

photographic mission (impacted lunar surface)
1962 - United States - Moon - Partial Failure - Ranger 5
Ranger 5
Ranger 5 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to impacting on the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar...

photographic mission (became flyby)
1962 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Mars 1962A flyby
1962 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Mars 1
Mars 1
Mars 1, also known as 1962 Beta Nu 1, Mars 2MV-4 and Sputnik 23, was an automatic interplanetary station launched in the direction of Mars on November 1, 1962, the first of the Soviet Mars probe program, with the intent of flying by the planet at a distance of about 11,000 km...

flyby
1962 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Mars 1962B lander
1963 - United States - Earth - Failure - Syncom 1 is launched
1963 - United States - Earth - Success - Syncom 2 is launched; the first geosynchronous orbit
Geosynchronous orbit
A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit around the Earth with an orbital period that matches the Earth's sidereal rotation period...
1963 - Soviet Union - Moon - Partial Failure - Luna 4
Luna 4
Luna 4 was the USSR's first successful spacecraft of their "second generation" Luna program. The spacecraft, rather than being sent on a straight trajectory toward the Moon, was placed first in a low Earth orbit and then the rocket stage reignited to send it on a curving path towards the...

lander (became probe)
1964 - United States - Earth - Success - Syncom 3 is launched; the first geostationary orbit
Geostationary orbit
A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers...
1964 - Soviet Union - Venus - Failure - Zond 1
Zond 1
Zond 1 was a member of the Soviet Zond program. It was the second Soviet research spacecraft to successfully reach Venus, although communications had failed by that time...

flyby
1964 - United States - Moon - Failure - Ranger 6
Ranger 6
Ranger 6 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras, 2 wide angle and 4 narrow angle to accomplish these objectives...

photographic mission
1964 - - Earth - Success - Ariel 2
Ariel 2
Ariel 2, also known as UK-C, was a British radio astronomy satellite, which was operated by the Science and Engineering Research Council as part of the Ariel programme. It was built in America by Westinghouse Electric, and had a mass at launch of...
1964 - United States - Moon - Success - Ranger 7
Ranger 7
Ranger 7 was the first US space probe to successfully transmit close images of the lunar surface back to Earth. It was also the first completely successful flight of the Ranger program. Launched on 28 July 1964, Ranger 7 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit...

photographic mission
1964 - United States - Mars - Failure - Mariner 3
Mariner 3
Mariner 3 and 4 were identical spacecraft of the Mariner program designed to carry out the first flybys of Mars and obtain photographs of the planet's surface. Mariner 3 was launched on November 5, 1964 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 13, but the shroud encasing the spacecraft...

flyby
1964 - United States - Mars - Success - Mariner 4
Mariner 4
Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft, launched on November 28, 1964, intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode and performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface...

flyby, the first successful Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

mission
1964 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Zond 2
Zond 2
Zond 2, a member of the Soviet Zond program, was the fifth Soviet spacecraft to attempt a flyby of Mars. Zond-2 carried a phototelevision camera of the same type later used to photograph the Moon on Zond 3. The camera system also included two ultraviolet spectrometers...

flyby
1964 - Italy - Earth - Success - San Marco 1
San Marco 1
San Marco 1, also known as San Marco A, was the first Italian satellite, and one of the earliest non-Soviet/US spacecraft. Built in-house by the Italian Space Research Commission on behalf of the National Research Council, it was the first of five as part of the Italian-US San Marco programme.The...

is launched aboard a U.S. Scout from the base of Wallops Island
Wallops Island
Wallops Island is a island off the east coast of Virginia, part of the barrier islands that stretch along the eastern seaboard of the United States of America.It is located in Accomack County, Virginia...

, first Italian satellite
1965 - United States - Sun - Success - Pioneer 6 solar probe
1965 - Soviet Union - Venus - Failure - Venera 2
Venera 2
Venera 2 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus.*Launch Date/Time: 1965 November 12 at 05:02:00 UTC*On-orbit Dry Mass: 963 kg...

flyby
1965 - Soviet Union - Venus - Failure - Venera 3
Venera 3
Venera 3 was a Venera program space probe that was built and launched by the Soviet Union to explore the surface of Venus. It was launched on November 16, 1965 at 04:19 UTC from Baikonur, Kazakhstan....

atmospheric probe
1965 - United States - Moon - Success - Ranger 8
Ranger 8
Ranger 8 was a spacecraft designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras, two wide angle and four narrow angle to accomplish these...

photographic mission
1965 - United States - Moon - Success - Ranger 9
Ranger 9
Ranger 9 was designed to achieve a lunar impact trajectory and to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar surface during the final minutes of flight up to impact. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras, 2 wide angle and 4 narrow angle to accomplish these objectives...

photographic mission
1965 - Canada - Earth - Success - Alouette 2
Alouette 2
Alouette 2 was a Canadian research satellite launched at 04:48 UTC on November 29, 1965 by a Thor Agena rocket with Explorer 31 from the Western test range at Vandenberg AFB in California...

is launched aboard a U.S. rocket
1965 - Soviet Union - Moon - Failure - Luna 5
Luna 5
Luna 5 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 5. It was designed to continue investigations of a lunar soft landing. The retrorocket system failed, and the spacecraft impacted the lunar surface at the Sea of Clouds....

lander
1965 - Soviet Union - Moon - Failure - Luna 6
Luna 6
Luna 6 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 6. Luna 6 was intended to travel to the Moon, but, because a mid-course correction failed, it missed the Moon by 159,612.8 km....

lander
1965 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Zond 3
Zond 3
Zond 3 was a member of the Soviet Zond program sharing designation Zond, while being part of Mars 3MV project. It was unrelated to Zond spacecraft designed for manned circumlunar mission . Zond 3 completed a successful Lunar flyby, taking a number of good quality photographs for its time...

flyby
1965 - Soviet Union - Moon - Failure - Luna 7
Luna 7
Luna 7 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Luna program, also called Lunik 7. The Luna 7 spacecraft was intended to achieve a soft landing on the Moon...

lander
1965 - Early Modern France - Satellite - Success - Astérix
Astérix (satellite)
Astérix, the first French satellite, was launched on November 26, 1965 by a rocket of type Diamant A from Hammaguir in Algeria. It was originally designated A-1, as the French Army's first satellite, but later renamed after the popular French cartoon character Astérix...

satellite, launched in French Diamant A
Diamant
The Diamant rocket was the first exclusively French expendable launch system and at the same time the first satellite launcher not built by either the USA or USSR. As such it is the main predecessor of all subsequent European launcher projects...

rocket, first French satellite
1965 - Soviet Union - Moon - Failure - Luna 8
Luna 8
Luna 8 , also known as Lunik 8, was a lunar space probe of the Luna program. It was launched with the objective of achieving a soft landing on the Moon. However, its retrorocket firing occurred too late, and suffered a hard impact on the lunar surface on the Oceanus Procellarum...

lander
1965 - United States - Mars - Success - Mariner 4
Mariner 4
Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft, launched on November 28, 1964, intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode and performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface...

sends the first clear pictures of Mars
1966 - United States - Sun - Success - Pioneer 7 solar probe
1966 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 9
Luna 9
Luna 9 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on any planetary body other than Earth and to transmit photographic data to Earth.The automatic lunar station that achieved the...

lander returned the first photographs from the surface of the Moon
1966 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 10
Luna 10
Luna 10 was a Luna program, robotic spacecraft mission, also called Lunik 10.The Luna 10 spacecraft was launched towards the Moon from an Earth orbiting platform on March 31, 1966. It was the first artificial satellite of the Moon...

becomes the first spacecraft to orbit the Moon
1966 - United States - Moon - Success - Surveyor 1
Surveyor 1
Surveyor 1 was the first lunar soft-lander in the unmanned Surveyor program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . This lunar soft-lander gathered data about the lunar surface that would be needed for the manned Apollo Moon landings that began in 1969...

lander
1966 - United States - Moon - Success - Lunar Orbiter 1
Lunar Orbiter 1
The Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter Program, was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions...

orbiter
1966 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 11
Luna 11
Luna 11 was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. It is also called Lunik 11.Luna 11 was launched towards the Moon from an earth-orbiting platform and entered lunar orbit on 27 August 1966...

orbiter
1966 - United States - Moon - Failure - Surveyor 2
Surveyor 2
Surveyor 2 was to be the second lunar lander in the unmanned American Surveyor program to explore the Moon.It was launched September 20, 1966 from Cape Kennedy, Florida aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket....
1966 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 12
Luna 12
-External links:*...

orbiter
1966 - United States - Moon - Success - Lunar Orbiter 2
Lunar Orbiter 2
The Lunar Orbiter 2 spacecraft was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions...

orbiter
1966 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 13
Luna 13
-External links:* *...

lander
1967 - Australia - Earth - Success - WRESAT
WRESAT
WRESAT was the name of the first Australian satellite. It was named after its designer....

is launched from Woomera on a U.S. Redstone
Redstone (rocket)
The PGM-11 Redstone was the first large American ballistic missile. A short-range surface-to-surface rocket, it was in active service with the U.S. Army in West Germany from June 1958 to June 1964 as part of NATO's Cold War defense of Western Europe...

rocket, the first Australian satellite
1967 - United States - Sun - Success - Pioneer 8 solar probe
1967 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 4
Venera 4
Venera 4 ) was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus. Venera-4 was the first successful probe to perform in-place analysis of the environment of another planet. It was also the first probe to land on another planet...

sends the first data from below the clouds of Venus
1967 - United States - Venus - Success - Mariner 5
Mariner 5
Mariner 5 was a spacecraft of the Mariner program that carried a complement of experiments to probe Venus' atmosphere by radio occultation, measure the hydrogen Lyman-alpha spectrum, and sample the solar particles and magnetic field fluctuations above the planet...

flyby
1967 - United States - Moon - Success - Lunar Orbiter 3
Lunar Orbiter 3
The Lunar Orbiter 3 was a spacecraft launched by NASA in 1967, designed primarily to photograph areas of the lunar surface for confirmation of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions...

orbiter
1967 - United States - Moon - Success - Surveyor 2
Surveyor 2
Surveyor 2 was to be the second lunar lander in the unmanned American Surveyor program to explore the Moon.It was launched September 20, 1966 from Cape Kennedy, Florida aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket....

lander
1967 - United States - Moon - Success - Lunar Orbiter 4
Lunar Orbiter 4
Lunar Orbiter 4 was designed to take advantage of the fact that the three previous Lunar Orbiters had completed the required needs for Apollo mapping and site selection...

orbiter
1967 - United States - Moon - Failure - Surveyor 3
Surveyor 3
Surveyor 3 was the third lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon. Launched on April 17, 1967, Surveyor 3 landed on April 20, 1967 at the Mare Cognitum portion of the Oceanus Procellarum...

lander
1967 - - Earth - Success - Ariel 3
Ariel 3
Ariel 3 was the first artificial satellite designed and constructed in the United Kingdom. it was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 5, 1967 aboard a Scout launch vehicle. Ariel 3 had an orbital period of approximately 95 minutes, with an apogee of 608 km and a perigee of 497 km...

,
1967 - United States - Moon - Success - Explorer 35
Explorer 35
Explorer 35 was a spin-stabilized spacecraft instrumented for interplanetary studies, at lunar distances, of the interplanetary plasma, magnetic field, energetic particles, and solar X rays. It was launched into an elliptical lunar orbit. The spin axis direction was nearly perpendicular to the...

orbiter
1967 - United States - Moon - Success - Lunar Orbiter 5
Lunar Orbiter 5
Lunar Orbiter 5, the last of the Lunar Orbiter series, was designed to take additional Apollo and Surveyor landing site photography and to take broad survey images of unphotographed parts of the Moon's far side...

orbiter
1967 - United States - Moon - Success - Surveyor 5
Surveyor 5
Surveyor 5 was the fifth lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.*Launched September 8, 1967; landed September 11, 1967*Weight on landing: 303 kg...

lander
1967 - United States - Moon - Success - Surveyor 6
Surveyor 6
Surveyor 6 was the sixth lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program that reached the surface of the Moon.*Launched November 7, 1967; landed November 10, 1967*Mass on landing: 299.6 kg Surveyor 6 landed on the Sinus Medii...

lander, also took off from the Moon's surface
1967 - United States - Success - The OSO-3 gamma-ray satellite discovers gamma-ray emission from the plane of the Milky Way
Galactic plane
The galactic plane is the plane in which the majority of a disk-shaped galaxy's mass lies. The directions perpendicular to the galactic plane point to the galactic poles...
1968 - United States - Sun - Success - Pioneer 9 solar probe
1968 - United States - Moon - Success - Surveyor 7
Surveyor 7
Surveyor 7 was the seventh and last lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon.*Launched January 7, 1968; landed January 10, 1968*Weight on landing: 305.7 kg...

lander
1968 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 14
Luna 14
-External links:*...

orbiter
1968 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Zond 5
Zond 5
Zond 5, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik in Earth parking orbit to make scientific studies during a lunar flyby and to return to Earth....

flyby
1968 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Zond 6
Zond 6
Zond 6, a formal member of the Soviet Zond program and unmanned version of Soyuz 7K-L1 manned moon-flyby spacecraft, was launched on a lunar flyby mission from a parent satellite in Earth parking orbit...

flyby
1969 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 5
Venera 5
Venera 5 was a probe in the Soviet space program Venera for the exploration of Venus.Venera 5 was launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik towards Venus to obtain atmospheric data...

atmospheric probe
1969 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 6
Venera 6
Venera 6 was a Soviet spacecraft, launched from a Tyazheliy Sputnik on January 10, 1969 towards Venus to obtain atmospheric data. It had an on-orbit dry mass of 1130 kg....

atmospheric probe
1969 - Soviet Union - Moon - Failure - Luna 15
Luna 15
-External links:*...

lander
1969 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Zond 7
Zond 7
This article was originally based on material from ...

flyby
1969 - United States - Mars - Success - Mariner 6 flyby
1969 - United States - Mars - Success - Mariner 7 flyby

1970s

1970 - Japan - Earth - Success - Osumi
Osumi (satellite)
Ōsumi is the name of the first Japanese artificial satellite put into orbit, named after the Ōsumi Province in the southern islands of Japan. It was launched on February 11, 1970 at 04:25 UTC with a Lambda 4S-5 rocket from Uchinoura Space Center by Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science,...

the first Japanese satellite
1970 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 7
Venera 7
The Venera 7 was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed on the Venusian surface, it became the first man-made spacecraft to successfully land on another planet and to transmit data from there back to Earth.*Launch date/time: 1970 August 17 at 05:38...

, the first successful landing of a spacecraft on another planet
1970 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 16
Luna 16
-External links:*...

lander is the first automated return of samples from the Moon
1970 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Zond 8 flyby
1970 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 17
Luna 17
-External links:*...

/Lunokhod 1
Lunokhod 1
Lunokhod 1 was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17...

lander/rover
Rover (space exploration)
A rover is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of a planet or other astronomical body. Some rovers have been designed to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots...

is the first automated surface exploration of the Moon
1970 - United States - Success - Launch of Uhuru
Uhuru (satellite)
Uhuru was the first satellite launched specifically for the purpose of X-ray astronomy. It was also known as the X-ray Explorer Satellite, SAS-A , SAS 1, or Explorer 42.The observatory was launched on 12 December 1970 into an initial orbit of about 560 km apogee, 520 km...

, the first dedicated X-ray satellite
1970 - Mainland China - Success - Launch of Dong Fang Hong I
Dong Fang Hong I
Dong Fang Hong I , also known as China 1, was the People's Republic of China's first space satellite, launched successfully on April 24, 1970 as part of the PRC's Dong Fang Hong space satellite program. At 173 kg , it was heavier than the first satellites of other countries. The satellite carried...

, the first Chinese
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

satellite
1971 - Soviet Union - Moon - Failure - Luna 18
Luna 18
Luna 18 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 18.Luna 18 was placed in an earth parking orbit after it was launched and was then sent towards the Moon. On September 7, 1971, it entered lunar orbit. The spacecraft completed 85 communications sessions and 54 lunar...

lander
1971 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 19
Luna 19
Luna 19 , was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program. Luna 19 extended the systematic study of lunar gravitational fields and location of mascons . It also studied the lunar radiation environment, the gamma-active lunar surface, and the solar wind...

orbiter
1971 - United States - Mars - Failure - Mariner 8
Mariner 8
Mariner-H, also commonly known as Mariner 8, was part of the Mariner Mars 71 project. It was intended to go into Mars orbit and return images and data.-Mission description:...

flyby
1971 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Cosmos 419
Cosmos 419
Kosmos 419 was launched by the Soviet Union on May 10, 1971. Mars was at its closest to Earth since 1956 and, in May that year, both the Soviet Union and the United States made new attempts to reach the Red Planet. The payload however failed to separate from the fourth stage of the launch vehicle,...

probe
1971 - Soviet Union - Mars - Partial Failure - Mars 2
Mars 2
The Mars program was a series of Mars unmanned landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s.The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbiter and an attached lander; they were the first human artifacts to impact the surface of Mars...

orbiter and lander, created the first human artifact on Mars
1971 - Soviet Union - Mars - Partial Success - Mars 3
Mars 3
The Mars 3 was an unmanned space probe of the Mars program, a series of unmanned Mars landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s....

orbiter and lander, first successful landing on Mars
1971 - United States - Mars - Success - Mariner 9
Mariner 9
Mariner 9 was a NASA space orbiter that helped in the exploration of Mars and was part of the Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and reached the planet on November 13 of the same year, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit...

orbiter, first pictures of Mars' moons (Phobos
Phobos (moon)
Phobos is the larger and closer of the two natural satellites of Mars. Both moons were discovered in 1877. With a mean radius of , Phobos is 7.24 times as massive as Deimos...

and Deimos
Deimos (moon)
Deimos is the smaller and outer of Mars's two moons . It is named after Deimos, a figure representing dread in Greek Mythology. Its systematic designation is '.-Discovery:Deimos was discovered by Asaph Hall, Sr...

) taken
1971 - - Earth - Success - Prospero X-3
Prospero X-3
-External links:* from "Woomera on the Web"* from Encyclopedia Astronautica* in the Global Frequency Database...

satellite, first and only satellite launched by Britain using a British rocket
1971 - - Earth - Success - Ariel 4
Ariel 4
Ariel 4, also known as UK 4, was a British ionospheric research satellite, which was operated by the Science and Engineering Research Council. It was built by the British Aircraft Corporation, and had a mass at launch of...

,
1972 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 8
Venera 8
Venera 8 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus.Venera 8 was a Venus atmospheric probe and lander. Its instrumentation included temperature, pressure, and light sensors as well as an altimeter, gamma ray spectrometer, gas analyzer, and radio transmitters...

lander
1972 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 20
Luna 20
Luna 20 was the second of three successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. It was flown as part of the Luna program, also called Lunik 20, as a robotic competitor to the six successful Apollo lunar sample return missions....

lander
1972 - Success - Launch of the Copernicus ultraviolet satellite
1972 - United States - Jupiter - Success - Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10 is a 258-kilogram robotic space probe that completed the first interplanetary mission to Jupiter, and became the first spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System. The project was managed by the NASA Ames Research Center and the contract for the construction of the...

launched, first spacecraft to encounter Jupiter
1972 - United States - Sun - Success - Explorer 49
Explorer 49
Explorer 49 was a 328 kilogram satellite launched on June 10, 1973 for longwave radio astronomy research. It had four 230-meter long X-shaped antenna elements, which made it one of the largest spacecraft ever built....

solar probe
1973 - United States - Venus/Mercury - Success - Mariner 10
Mariner 10
Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on November 3, 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. It was launched approximately two years after Mariner 9 and was the last spacecraft in the Mariner program...

launched, it passed by and photographed Mercury, also was the first dual planet probe
1973 - United States - Jupiter/Saturn - Success - Pioneer 11
Pioneer 11
Pioneer 11 is a 259-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on April 6, 1973 to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the solar system and heliosphere...

launched, first spacecraft to encounter Saturn
1973 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 21
Luna 21
-External links:*...

/Lunokhod 2
Lunokhod 2
Lunokhod 2 was the second of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of the Lunokhod program....

lander/rover
1973 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Mars 4 orbiter
1973 - Soviet Union - Mars - Success - Mars 5 orbiter
1973 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Mars 6 orbiter and lander
1973 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Mars 7 orbiter and lander
1974 - West Germany - Sun - Success - Helios 1 solar probe
1974 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 22
Luna 22
Luna 22 was an unmanned space mission, part of the Soviet Luna program, also called Lunik 22.Luna 22 was a lunar orbiter mission...

orbiter
1974 - Soviet Union - Moon - Failure - Luna 23
Luna 23
Luna 23 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 23.Luna 23 was a Moon lander mission which was intended to return a lunar sample to Earth. Launched to the Moon by a Proton SL-12/D-1-e booster, the spacecraft was damaged during landing in Mare Crisium...

probe
1974 - - Earth - Success - Launch of the Ariel 5 X-ray satellite
1975 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 9
Venera 9
Venera 9 was a USSR unmanned space mission to Venus. It consisted of an orbiter and a lander. It was launched on June 8, 1975 02:38:00 UTC and weighed 4,936 kg...

returns the first pictures of the surface of Venus
1975 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 10
Venera 10
Venera 10 was a USSR unmanned space mission to Venus. It consisted of an orbiter and a lander. It launched on June 14, 1975 03:00:31 UTC.-Orbiter:The orbiter entered Venus orbit on October 23, 1975...

orbiter and lander
1975 - United States - Mars - Partial Success - Viking 1
Viking 1
Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. It was the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars and perform its mission, and until May 19, 2010 held the record for the second longest Mars surface mission of 6 years and 116 days .- Mission :Following...

orbiter and lander; lands on Mars 1976
1975 - United States - Mars - Success - Viking 2
Viking 2
The Viking 2 mission was part of the American Viking program to Mars, and consisted of an orbiter and a lander essentially identical to that of the Viking 1 mission. The Viking 2 lander operated on the surface for 1,281 Mars days and was turned off on 11 April 1980 when its batteries failed...

orbiter and lander; lands on Mars 1976
1975 - India - Earth - Success - Aryabhata
Aryabhata (satellite)
Aryabhatta was India's first satellite, named after the great Indian astronomer of the same name. It was launched by the Soviet Union on 19 April 1975 from Kapustin Yar using a Cosmos-3M launch vehicle. It was built by the Indian Space Research Organization to gain experience in building and...

India, launched by USSR
1975 - India - India's first rocket SLV launched
1976 - West Germany - Sun - Success - Helios 2
Helios probes
Helios-A and Helios-B , were a pair of probes launched into heliocentric orbit for the purpose of studying solar processes. A joint venture of the Federal Republic of Germany and NASA, the probes were launched from the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Dec. 10, 1974,...

solar probe
1976 - Soviet Union - Moon - Success - Luna 24
Luna 24
-External links:*...

lander
1976 - Earth - Success - Hermes Communications Technology Satellite
Hermes Communications Technology Satellite
The Communications Technology Satellite, also known as Hermes was an experimental high-power direct broadcast communications satellite. It was a joint effort of Canada's Department of Communications, who designed and managed it, NASA who launched it and provided a traveling wave guide, the European...

prototype for testing direct broadcast TV
1976 - Success - The Vela
Vela (satellite)
Vela was the name of a group of satellites developed as the Vela Hotel element of Project Vela by the United States to monitor compliance with the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty by the Soviet Union, and other nuclear-capable states. It means vigil or "watch" in Spanish.Vela started out as a small...

and ANS X-ray satellites discover X-ray bursts
1976 - Success - The OSO-8 X-ray satellite shows that X-ray bursts have blackbody spectra
1977 - Success - Launch of the HEAO-1 X-ray satellite
1978 - United States - Venus - Success - Pioneer Venus 1 orbiter
1978 - United States - Venus - Success - Pioneer Venus 2 atmospheric probe
1978 - Soviet Union - Venus - Partial Success - Venera 11
Venera 11
The Venera 11 was a USSR unmanned space mission part of the Venera program to explore the planet Venus. Venera 11 was launched on 9 September 1978 at 3:25:39 UTC....

flyby and lander
1978 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 12
Venera 12
The Venera 12 was an USSR unmanned space mission to explore the planet Venus. Venera 12 was launched on 14 September 1978 at 02:25:13 UTC. Separating from its flight platform on December 19, 1978, the lander entered the Venus atmosphere two days later at 11.2 km/s. During the descent, it...

flyby and lander
1978 - Success - Launch of the International Ultraviolet Explorer
International Ultraviolet Explorer
The International Ultraviolet Explorer was an astronomical observatory satellite primarily designed to take ultraviolet spectra. The satellite was a collaborative project between NASA, the UK Science Research Council and the European Space Agency...

satellite
1978 - Success - Launch of the Einstein X-ray satellite (HEAO-2) is the first X-ray photographs of astronomical objects
1979 - Success - Launch of the Hakucho
Hakucho
Hakucho was Japan's first X-ray astronomy satellite, developed by the Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science...

X-ray satellite
1979 - - Earth - Success - Launch of the Ariel 6
Ariel 6
Ariel 6, also known as Ariel VI and UK-6, was a British satellite launched in 1979 as part of the Ariel programme. It was operated by the Science Research Council, which became the Science and Engineering Research Council in 1981. Ariel 6 was used for astronomical research, and operated until...

cosmic-ray and X-ray satellite
1979 - United States - Jupiter - Success - Voyager 1
Voyager 1
The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of...

and Voyager 2
Voyager 2
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space...

send back images of Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...

and its system
1979 - India - Earth - Success - Bhaskara-1 India, launched by ISRO (First Indian low orbit Earth Observation Satellite)

1980s

1980 - United States - Sun - Failure - Solar Maximum Mission
Solar Maximum Mission
The Solar Maximum Mission satellite was designed to investigate solar phenomenon, particularly solar flares. It was launched on February 14, 1980....

solar probe succeeded after being repaired in Earth orbit
1981 - India - Earth - Success - Bhaskara-2 India, launched by ISRO
1981 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 13
Venera 13
Venera 13 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus.Venera 13 and 14 were identical spacecraft built to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity and launched 5 days apart, Venera 13 on 1981-10-30 at 06:04:00 UTC and Venera 14 on 1981-11-04 at 05:31:00 UTC,...

launched, it returned the first colour pictures of the surface of Venus
1981 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 14
Venera 14
Venera 14 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus.Venera 14 was identical to the Venera 13 spacecraft and built to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity and launched 5 days apart...

flyby and lander
1981 - Kingdom of Bulgaria - Earth - Success - Bulgaria 1300
Bulgaria 1300
Interkosmos 22, more commonly known as Bulgaria 1300 , is the first artificial satellite of Bulgaria.- Description :The satellite was developed by the Bulgarian Space Agency around the "Meteor" bus, provided by the Soviet Union as part of the Interkosmos program. Assembly took place in Bulgaria,...

, polar research mission, launched by the Soviet Union
1983 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 15
Venera 15
Venera 15 was a spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union. This unmanned orbiter was to map the surface of Venus using high resolution imaging systems...

orbiter
1983 - Soviet Union - Venus - Success - Venera 16
Venera 16
Venera 16 was a spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union. This unmanned orbiter was to map the surface of Venus using high resolution imaging systems...

orbiter
1983 - Europe - Earth - Success - Launch of the EXOSAT
EXOSAT
The European X-ray Observatory Satellite , originally named HELOS, was operational from May 1983 until April 1986 and in that time made 1780 observations in the X-ray band of most classes of astronomical object including active galactic nuclei, stellar coronae, cataclysmic variables, white dwarfs,...

X-ray satellite
1983 - Japan - Earth - Success - Launch of the Tenma X-ray satellite (ASTRO-B)
1983 - United States/ Netherlands/ - Earth - Success - Launch of the IRAS
IRAS
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite was the first-ever space-based observatory to perform a survey of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths....

satellite
1984 - Soviet Union - Venus/Halley's Comet - Success - Vega 1
Vega 1
Vega 1 is a Soviet space probe part of the Vega program. The spacecraft was a development of the earlier Venera craft...

flyby, atmospheric probe and lander
1984 - Soviet Union - Venus/Halley's Comet - Success - Vega 2
Vega 2
Vega 2 is a Soviet space probe part of the Vega program. The spacecraft was a development of the earlier Venera craft. They were designed by Babakin Space Center and constructed as 5VK by Lavochkin at Khimki...

flyby, atmospheric probe and lander
1986 - Europe - Halley's Comet - Success - Giotto
Giotto mission
Giotto was a European robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency, intended to fly by and study Halley's Comet. On 13 March 1986, the mission succeeded in approaching Halley's nucleus at a distance of 596 kilometers....

flyby
1987 - Japan - Earth - Success - Launch of the Ginga X-ray satellite (ASTRO-C)
1988 - Soviet Union - Mars - Failure - Phobos 1 orbiter and lander
1988 - Soviet Union - Mars - Partial Failure - Phobos 2 flyby and lander
1989 - United States - Venus - Success - Magellan
Magellan probe
The Magellan spacecraft, also referred to as the Venus Radar Mapper, was a 1,035-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on May 4, 1989, to map the surface of Venus using Synthetic Aperture Radar and measure the planetary gravity...

orbiter launched which mapped 99 percent of the surface of Venus (300 m resolution)
1989 - United States - Venus/Earth/Moon/Gaspra/Ida/Jupiter - Success - Galileo flyby, orbiter and atmospheric probe
1989 - United States - Neptune - Success - Voyager 2 sends back images of Neptune and its system
1989 - Europe - Earth - Success - Launch of the Hipparcos
Hipparcos
Hipparcos was a scientific mission of the European Space Agency , launched in 1989 and operated between 1989 and 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions of celestial objects on the sky...

satellite
1989 - United States - Earth - Success - Launch of the COBE
COBE
The COsmic Background Explorer , also referred to as Explorer 66, was a satellite dedicated to cosmology. Its goals were to investigate the cosmic microwave background radiation of the universe and provide measurements that would help shape our understanding of the cosmos.This work provided...

satellite
1989 - Soviet Union - Earth - Success - Launch of the Granat
Granat
The International Astrophysical Observatory "GRANAT" , was a Soviet space observatory developed in collaboration with France, Denmark and Bulgaria. It was launched on 1 December 1989 aboard a Proton rocket and placed in a highly eccentric four-day orbit, of which three were devoted to observations...

gamma-ray and X-ray satellite

1990s

1990 - United States/ Europe - Sun - Success - Ulysses solar flyby
1990 - Japan - Moon - Success - MUSES-A probe, this was the first non-United States or USSR
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

probe to reach the Moon
1990 - United States/ Europe - Success - Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
1990 - Germany - Success - Launch of the ROSAT
ROSAT
ROSAT was a German Aerospace Center-led satellite X-ray telescope, with instruments built by Germany, the UK and the US...

X-ray satellite to conduct the first imaging X-ray sky survey
1991 - Japan - Sun - Success - Yohkoh
Yohkoh
Yohkoh , known before launch as Solar-A, was a Solar observatory spacecraft of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science with United States and United Kingdom collaboration...

solar probe
1991 - United States - Earth - Success - Launch of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory satellite
1992 - United States - Mars - Failure - Mars Observer
Mars Observer
The Mars Observer spacecraft, also known as the Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter, was a 1,018-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on September 25, 1992 to study the Martian surface, atmosphere, climate and magnetic field...

orbiter
1993 - Japan - Earth - Success - Launch of the ASCA
Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics
ASCA is the fourth cosmic X-ray astronomy mission by Japan's , and the second for which the United States is providing part of the scientific payload. The satellite was successfully launched on February 20, 1993. The first eight months of the ASCA mission were devoted to performance verification...

(ASTRO-D) X-ray satellite
1994 - United States - Moon - Success - Clementine
Clementine mission
Clementine was a joint space project between the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and NASA...

orbiter mapped the surface of the Moon (resolution 125-150m) and allowed the first accurate relief map
Cartographic relief depiction
Terrain or relief is an essential aspect of physical geography, and as such its portrayal presents a central problem in cartography, and more recently GIS and 3D Visualization....

of the Moon to be generated
1995 - Europe - Earth - Success - Launch of the Infrared Space Observatory
Infrared Space Observatory
The Infrared Space Observatory was a space telescope for infrared light designed and operated by the European Space Agency , in cooperation with ISAS and NASA...
1995 - Europe/ United States - Sun - Success - SOHO
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory is a spacecraft built by a European industrial consortium led by Matra Marconi Space that was launched on a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS launch vehicle on December 2, 1995 to study the Sun, and has discovered over 2100 comets. It began normal operations in May...

solar probe
1996 - United States - 433 Eros - Success - NEAR Shoemaker
NEAR Shoemaker
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous - Shoemaker , renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene M. Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a...

- asteroid flybys/orbiter/lander
1996 - United States - Mars - Success - Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Global Surveyor
The Mars Global Surveyor was a US spacecraft developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. It began the United States's return to Mars after a 10-year absence. It completed its primary mission in January 2001 and was in its third extended mission phase when, on 2...

orbiter
1996 - United States - Mars - Success - Mars Pathfinder
Mars Pathfinder
Mars Pathfinder was an American spacecraft that landed a base station with roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight wheeled robotic rover named Sojourner.Launched on December 4, 1996 by NASA aboard a Delta II booster a...

, the first automated surface exploration of another planet
1996 - Russia - Mars - Failure - Mars 96
Mars 96
Mars 96 was a failed Mars mission launched in 1996 to investigate Mars by the Russian Space Forces and not directly related to the Soviet Mars probe program of the same name. After failure of the second fourth-stage burn, the probe assembly re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, breaking up over a...

orbiter and lander
1997 - United States/ Europe - Saturn and Titan - Success - Cassini-Huygens
Cassini-Huygens
Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI spacecraft mission studying the planet Saturn and its many natural satellites since 2004. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan, although it has also returned...

- arrived in orbit on July 1, 2004, landed on Titan January 14, 2005
1998 - North Korea - Earth - Unknown - Claimed launch of Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1
Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1
Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1 was a satellite allegedly launched by North Korea on 31 August 1998. While the North Korean government claimed that the launch was successful making North Korea the ninth country to launch a satellite, no objects were ever tracked in orbit from the launch, and outside North Korea...

by North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...

though no independent source was able to verify its existence
1998 - United States - Moon - Success - Lunar Prospector
Lunar Prospector
The Lunar Prospector mission was the third selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was designed for a low polar orbit investigation of the Moon, including mapping of surface composition and possible...

orbiter
1998 - Japan - Mars - Failure - Nozomi (Planet B) orbiter, the first Japanese spacecraft to reach another planet
1998 - United States - Mars - Failure - Mars Climate Orbiter
Mars Climate Orbiter
The Mars Climate Orbiter was a 338 kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on December 11, 1998 to study the Martian climate, atmosphere, surface changes and to act as the communications relay in the Mars Surveyor '98 program, for Mars Polar Lander...
1999 - United States - Mars - Failure - Mars Polar Lander
Mars Polar Lander
The Mars Polar Lander, also referred to as the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander, was a 290-kilogram robotic spacecraft lander, launched by NASA on January 3, 1999, to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars, as part of the Mars Surveyor '98 mission...
1999 - United States - Mars - Failure - Deep Space 2
Deep Space 2
Deep Space 2 was a NASA probe which was part of the New Millennium Program. It included two highly advanced miniature space probes which were sent to Mars aboard the Mars Polar Lander in January 1999. The probes were named "Scott" and "Amundsen", in honor of Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen,...

(DS2) penetrators
1999 - United States - Earth - Success - Launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory
Chandra X-ray Observatory
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is a satellite launched on STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. It was named in honor of Indian-American physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who is known for determining the maximum mass for white dwarfs. "Chandra" also means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit.Chandra...
1999 - Europe - Earth - Success - Launch of the X-Ray Multi-Mirror Mission, XMM-Newton
XMM-Newton
The XMM-Newton is an orbiting X-ray observatory launched by ESA in December 1999 on a Ariane 5 rocket...

2000s

2001 - United States - Sun - Partial Success - Genesis
Genesis (spacecraft)
The Genesis spacecraft was a NASA sample return probe which collected a sample of solar wind and returned it to Earth for analysis. It was the first NASA sample return mission to return material since the Apollo Program, and the first to return material from beyond the orbit of the Moon...

solar wind sample return - crash-landed on return
2001 - United States - Success - Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) performs cosmological observations.
2001 - United States - Mars - Success - Mars Odyssey
2003 - Canada - Earth - Success - MOST
Microvariability and Oscillations of STars telescope
The Microvariability and Oscillations of STars telescope, better known simply as MOST, is Canada's first and only space telescope. It is also the smallest space telescope in the world...

the smallest space telescope in orbit
2003 - United States - Comet Encke
Comet Encke
Comet Encke or Encke's Comet is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every three years — the shortest period of any known comet...

- Failure - CONTOUR
CONTOUR
The COmet Nucleus TOUR was a NASA Discovery-class space probe that failed shortly after its July 2002 launch. It had as its primary objective close flybys of two comet nuclei with the possibility of a flyby of a third known comet or an as-yet-undiscovered comet.The two comets scheduled to be...

launched, but lost during early trajectory insertion.
2003 - Europe - Moon - Success - Smart 1 orbiter
2003 - Europe - Mars - Partial Success - Mars Express
Mars Express
Mars Express is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency . The Mars Express mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. "Express" originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was...

orbiter (successfully reached orbit) and failed lander, the Beagle 2
Beagle 2
Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. All contact with it was lost upon its separation from the Mars Express six days before its scheduled entry into the atmosphere...
2003 - United States - Mars - Success - Mars Exploration Rovers - successful launches, Spirit successfully landed, Opportunity successfully landed
2003 - Japan - 25143 Itokawa
25143 Itokawa
25143 Itokawa is an Apollo and Mars-crosser asteroid. It was the first asteroid to be the target of a sample return mission, the Japanese space probe Hayabusa.-Discovery and naming:...

- Hayabusa
Hayabusa
was an unmanned spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis....

- sample return - arrive at 2010
2004 - Europe - Comet 67P
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko, officially designated 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, is a comet with a current orbital period of 6.6 years. It is the destination of the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft mission, launched on March 2, 2004....

- Rosetta space probe launched - yet to arrive
2004 - United States - Mercury - MESSENGER
MESSENGER
The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging space probe is a robotic NASA spacecraft in orbit around the planet Mercury. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study the chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field of Mercury...

orbiter - launched - in Mercury orbit
2004 - United States - Success - Launch of the Swift
Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission
The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission consists of a robotic spacecraft called Swift, which was launched into orbit on 20 November 2004, 17:16:00 UTC on a Delta II 7320-10C expendable launch vehicle. Swift is managed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and was developed by an international...

Gamma ray burst
Gamma ray burst
Gamma-ray bursts are flashes of gamma rays associated with extremely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most luminous electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe. Bursts can last from ten milliseconds to several minutes, although a typical...

observatory.
2005 - Iran - Earth - Sinah-1
Sinah-1
Sina-1 is the first Iranian artificial satellite, launched at 6:52 UTC October 28, 2005 on board a Cosmos-3M Russian launch vehicle from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. The rocket was also carrying a Russian military Mozhayets-5 satellite, a Chinese China-DMC, a British Topsat, a European Space Agency...

- launched, first Iranian-built satellite
2005 - United States - Comet Tempel 1 - Deep Impact - successful comet impact
2005 - United States - Mars - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a NASA multipurpose spacecraft designed to conduct reconnaissance and Exploration of Mars from orbit...

- in orbit
2005 - Europe - Venus - Venus Express
Venus Express
Venus Express is the first Venus exploration mission of the European Space Agency. Launched in November 2005, it arrived at Venus in April 2006 and has been continuously sending back science data from its polar orbit around Venus. Equipped with seven science instruments, the main objective of the...

- in orbit
2006 - United States - Pluto - New Horizons
New Horizons
New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1. Its estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system is July 14th, 2015...

- launched - yet to arrive
2006 - Early Modern France/ESA - Earth - COROT
Corot
Corot may refer to:* Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French landscape painter * COROT, a space mission with the dual aims of finding extrasolar planets and performing asteroseismology* COROT-7, a dwarf star in the Monoceros constellation...

- launched, telescope to search for extrasolar planets
2007 - United States - Mars - Success - Phoenix
Phoenix (spacecraft)
Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program. The Phoenix lander descended on Mars on May 25, 2008...

- launched and successfully landed in 2008
2007 - Japan - Moon - SELENE
SELENE
SELENE , better known in Japan by its nickname after the legendary Japanese moon princess, was the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft. Produced by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science and the National Space Development Agency , both now part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration...

orbiter and lander - in lunar orbit since October 3, 2007
2007 - United States - Vesta/Ceres- Dawn - launched - solar powered ion engined probe to 4 Vesta
4 Vesta
Vesta, formally designated 4 Vesta, is one of the largest asteroids, with a mean diameter of about . It was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on March 29, 1807, and is named after the Roman virgin goddess of home and hearth, Vesta....

and 1 Ceres
1 Ceres
Ceres, formally 1 Ceres, is the smallest identified dwarf planet in the Solar System and the only one in the asteroid belt. With a diameter of about 950 km, Ceres is by far the largest and most-massive asteroid, comprising about a third of the mass of the asteroid belt. Discovered on 1 January 1801...

.
2007 - Mainland China - Moon - Chang'e-I - success - lunar orbiter
2008 - United States - Earth - Success - IBEX
Interstellar Boundary Explorer
Interstellar Boundary Explorer is a NASA satellite that will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. The mission is part of NASA's Small Explorer program. The IBEX satellite was launched with a Pegasus-XL rocket on October 19, 2008, at 17:47:23 UTC...

- launched - operating
2009 - Europe - L2 - Planck (spacecraft) - launched, arrived, operating
2009 - Europe - L2 - Herschel Space Observatory
Herschel Space Observatory
The Herschel Space Observatory is a European Space Agency space observatory sensitive to the far infrared and submillimetre wavebands. It is the largest space telescope ever launched, carrying a single mirror of in diameter....

- launched, arrived, operating
2009 - Iran - Earth - Omid
Omid
Omid is a common Persian male given name, meaning hope...

- launched by Iranian made launcher Safir, first Iranian-launched satellite
2009 - United States - Earth - Success - Kepler - launched - operating
2009 - India - Earth - Success - RISAT-2
RISAT-2
RISAT-2, or Radar Imaging Satellite 2 is an Indian radar reconnaissance satellite that is part of India's RISAT programme. It was successfully launched aboard a PSLV-CA at 01:15 GMT on April 20, 2009 from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre...

developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, launched by ISRO, India
2009 - India - Moon - Partial failure - Chandrayaan-1 developed and launched by ISRO, India

2010s

2010 - Japan - Venus - Akatsuki orbiter - failed orbital insertion
2010 - Japan - Venus IKAROS
IKAROS
IKAROS is a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency experimental spacecraft. The spacecraft was launched on 21 May, 2010, aboard an H-IIA rocket, together with the Akatsuki probe and four other small spacecraft...

- launched - first solar-sail spacecraft
2010 - Mainland China - Moon - Chang'e-2 - success - lunar orbiter/impacter
2011 - United States - Jupiter - Juno
Juno (spacecraft)
Juno is a NASA New Frontiers mission to the planet Jupiter. Juno was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on August 5, 2011. The spacecraft is to be placed in a polar orbit to study the planet's composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere...

- launched and en route

External links

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