Links to Space Missions

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AXAF	Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility.
Beagle-2 Mars Mission	Latest status, time lines, and news.
Cassini	Cassini mission to Saturn. Currently enroute.
COBE	Cosmic Background Explorer consisting of three instruments to measure the microwave radiation from the early universe.
Dawn Mission to Ceres and Vesta	In September 2007, NASA's Discovery mission, Dawn, will launch in a quest to characterize the conditions and processes of the solar system's earliest epoch by investigating in detail two of the largest protoplanets remaining intact since their formations, Ceres and Vesta.
Deep Impact Mission NASA Main Site	Mission overview, media resources, multimedia animations. Latest mission updates including impact countdown clock.
Deep Impact Mission JPL & Univ. of MD Site	Mission science and technology, animations, and educator resources. Profiles of personnel from NASA, University of Maryland, JPL, and Bell Aerospace Corp.
Deep Space 1	Deep Space 1 is the first spacecraft in the Millennium Project which will test new space technologies. DS-1 will test ion propulsion and visit an asteroid.
Encyclopedia Astronautica	Mark Wade's wealth of information on space missions by various nations.
EPOXI Mission	Beginning on January 26, 2008 and continuing until about the end of May, 2008, EPOXI will gather EPOCh science data. The main objective of EPOXI's EPOCh observations are to investigate planets known to orbit 3-6 distant stars, and to search those stars for previously undiscovered planets. In October 2010, EPOXI begins an encounter with comet Hartley 2 for six science goals including the search for and, if found, the production of spectral maps of outbursts of gas from the surface of the comet.
GLAST Mission	With the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), astronomers will at long last have a superior tool to study how black holes, notorious for pulling matter in, can accelerate jets of gas outward at fantastic speeds. Physicists will be able to study subatomic particles at energies far greater than those seen in ground-based particle accelerators. And cosmologists will gain valuable information about the birth and early evolution of the Universe.
Hipparcos	Launched and maintained by the European Space Agency, Hipparcos' mission is in astrometry, or precisely plotting the positions and motions of stars.
Human Spaceflight	NASA's information page on the International Space Station, Space Shuttle, and other spaceflight news.
IRAS	Infrared Astronomical Satellite.
Iridium Flares etc. from Heavens-Above.com	Heavens-Above is maintained by Chris Peat in Germany. The site is usable anonymously, but if you register your observing site and preferences, you will get highly accurate sky charts and tables for all kinds of artificial satellites including ISS and the Space Shuttle when it is in orbit.
J-Pass / J-Track	NASA's real-time tracking site of most visible satellites.
Kepler: A Search For Habitable Planets	NASA's first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars.
LISA - Laser Interferometer Space Antenna	As the first dedicated space-based gravitational wave observatory, LISA will detect waves generated by binaries within our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and by massive black holes in distant galaxies.
Lunar Prospector	Lunar Prospector is currently in orbit around the moon taking high resolution images of the moon. LP has discovered water ice in deep craters that never see sunlight.
Mars Express	Frequent status reports on the Mars Express mission from the European Space Agency.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter	Launched August 12, 2005, MRO is on a search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars long enough to provide a habitat for life.
Mars Rovers	Frequent status reports on current and upcoming Mars missions. Includes links to science and technology background info.
Mars TV	Frequent status reports on current and upcoming Mars missions. Includes images, text, and videos.
MESSENGER Mission	A NASA Discovery mission to conduct the first orbital study of the innermost planet.
NASA TV	See 24/7 broadcasts of NASA TV. This link also provides the broadcast schedule. For webcasts, you will need a video viewer. Several different viewers are also available for free download from this link.
NASA Vision for Space Exploration	See a ten-minute multi-part video and audio animation of NASA's view for exploring Earth, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The Flash animation viewer will download automatically if you don't already have it. A high speed broadband internet connection is recommended.
NASA Watch	This is not a NASA Website. An independent source of info about space missions and the space agency. Good coverage of news stories, press releases, and events.
NEAR	Maintained by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft's mission is to fly by several near-earth asteroids, photograph them, and take other measurements.
New Horizons Pluto Mission	Launched January 19, 2006 and on track for Pluto/Charon encounter in July 2015 and encounters with Kuiper Belt objects 2016 through 2020.
Phoenix Mission to Mars Northern Polar Region	The Phoenix lander targets northern circumpolar region of Mars using a robotic arm to dig through the protective top soil layer to the water ice below and ultimately, to bring both soil and water ice to the lander platform for sophisticated scientific analysis
Phoenix Mission Univ.of Arizona	The University of Arizona is honored to be the first public university to lead a mission to Mars. See news, multimedia, and current Martian weather conditions.
ROSAT	The ROentgen SATellite is an X-ray observatory developed jointly between the U.S., the U.K. and Germany
Solar-B	Solar-B is an international mission to study our nearest star, the Sun, to investigate the interaction between the Sun's magnetic field and its corona.
SpaceDaily	Your portal to space. Brief status reports on space missions plus articles of greater depth. Newsletter subscription available.
SpaceFlight Now	A regularly updated listing of planned missions from spaceports around the globe.
Space Technology 5	The Space Technology 5 (ST5) mission consists of three micro-satellites exploring the Earth's magnetic fields. The ST5 project is a part of NASA's New Millennium Program.
Spitzer Space Telescope	The Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility) was launched into space by a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 25 August 2003. During its 2.5-year mission, Spitzer will obtain images and spectra by detecting the infrared energy, or heat, radiated by objects in space between wavelengths of 3 and 180 microns (1 micron is one-millionth of a meter). Most of this infrared radiation is blocked by the Earth's atmosphere and cannot be observed from the ground.
Stardust Comet Sample Return Mission	NASA's Stardust mission was wildly successful in returning particles from the dust trail of comet Wild-2 on January 15, 2006.
STEREO, The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory Main Site	Current status of the mission as well as extreme ultraviolet images and coronagraphs.
STEREO, The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory	The STEREO mission will provide a totally new perspective on solar eruptions by capturing images of coronal mass ejections and background events from two observatories at the same time. STEREO's twin observatories will be offset from one another in orbit. One observatory will be placed "ahead" of the Earth in its orbit, and the other will travel "behind." Just as the slight offset between your eyes provides you with depth perception, this placement will allow the STEREO observatories to obtain 3-D images of the Sun.
Ulysses	The Ulysses space craft is a deep space voyage to high latitudes over the Solar Poles. The link includes a 3-D model of the solar system showing the current location of Ulysses (Your browser must have Java enabled).
Warp Drive When?	The project manager for NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project offers the prospects for achieving the propulsion breakthroughs that would enable interstellar travel in the future.
WISE - Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer	NASA has approved the start of construction on a new mission called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which will scan the entire sky in infrared light. It is scheduled to launch into an Earth orbit in late 2009.
Yohkoh - SXT	The Soft X-ray Telescope aboard the Japanese Yohkoh spacecraft will observe the Sun in soft X-rays. A joint project between the Japanese Space Agency and NASA.

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Maintained by Page last updated 06/07/2008