Space Probes & Missions

• Cassini A probe of the Saturn system to be launched in late 1997. The mission includes a probe to be landed on Titan.
• Stardust A mission to fly within 100 km. of the comet Wild-2, collect a sample of the dust in the comet's tail, and return the sample to Earth for study.
• Lunar Prospector A probe intended to spend a year in a polar orbit around the moon. It's purpose is to map Lunar resources.

• Mars Pathfinder The probe that landed on Mars on July 4, 1997 and it's surface rover Sojourner.
• Mars Global Surveyor Launched on November 7, 1996 it is expected to go into orbit around Mars on September 12, 1997. This probe will spend a full year orbiting Mars collecting data.
• NEAR Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission was launched on February 17, 1996 and expects to go into orbit around the asteroid 433 Eros in February of 1999. On June 27, 1997 NEAR flew within 1200 km. of the main-belt asteroid 253 Mathilde, returning pictures and other information.
• Galileo The Project Galileo home page. Containing the latest information about Galileo's exploration of the Jupiter system.
• Ulysses A probe sent to look at the north and south poles of the Sun that traveled by way of Jupiter.  A report from the Ulysses Operations Team.

• Hipparcos An European Space Agency satellite has measured the position of over 120,000 stars with the greatest accuracy ever. Discussed in the July 97 issue of Sky & Telescope.
• Pioneer Venus A mission to Venus that included a flyby and a group of probes that entered the atmosphere (one of which made it to the surface).
• Magellan The probe that produced the radar maps of Venus.
• Viking The first mission to land on Mars (or any other planet). Two landers which photographed the surroundings, took soil samples, tested for indications of life, and reported on the local weather supported by two orbiters which mapped the surface.
• Pioneer 10 & 11 The first probes to visit Jupiter (10 in 1973, 11 in 1974) and Saturn (11 in 1979).
• Voyager The second set of probes to visit Jupiter and Saturn and the first probes to visit the Uranus and Neptune.

Clementine was the most recent American mission to the Moon. It orbited the Moon and produces an excellent photo survey.
 

• Clementine image browser a way to look at the collection of Clementine images.
• Ranger The first set of American missions to the Moon. They returned the first clear pictures of the surface of another world and proved, eventually, that we could get to the Moon.
• Surveyor The first soft landing on another world. They provided pictures and soil samples to prove the Moon wasn't made of green cheese.
• Lunar Orbiter probes were a series of satellites placed in orbit around the Moon to provide close-up pictures to the people choosing the landing sites for Apollo: Lunar Orbiter 1, Lunar Orbiter 2, Lunar Orbiter 3, Lunar Orbiter 4, Lunar Orbiter 5
• Apollo A review of the Apollo project compiled on the 25th of the Apollo 11 landing.
• Soviet (Russian) Lunar missions. Information on the Moon shots launched from the U.S.S.R.