Future Science Missions & Events

Change log:
Mar-10: EPOXI, Stardust-NExT, HAYABUSA status updates
Mar-03: GOES-P delayed; Dawn, Stardust-NExT, CryoSat-2, AKATSUKI/IKAROS, Rosetta, GOES-P status updates
Feb-20: CryoSat-2, Picard launch delayed; GOES-P, HAYABUSA, Stardust-NExT status updates
Feb-08: SDO, LADEE, IRIS delayed; SDO, GOES-P, Stardust-NExT, Rosetta status updates
Feb-03: AKATSUKI/IKAROS launch window
Feb-01: Dawn, HAYABUSA status updates
Jan-30: SDO, CryoSat-2, GOES-P, Stardust-NExT status updates
Jan-26: SDO, CryoSat-2, GOES-P, Stardust-NExT, Rosetta status updates
Jan-21: HAYABUSA status update
Jan-14: GOES-P launch date/time; HAYABUSA status update
ExoMars Programme
Any corrections, additions or updates can be sent to spacespin@gmail.com or use the feedback form.


Date
Time (UTC)
Mission/Event Description Launch Vehicle Agency
Apr-05-2010
15:51
Cassini Titan flyby T-67 (7,462 km). NASA
Early-Apr-2010 (TBD) CryoSat-2 CryoSat will monitor the thickness of land ice and sea ice and help explain the connection between the melting of the polar ice and the rise in sea levels and how this is contributing to climate change.

Preparing to babysit CryoSat-2
Feb-23-2010

Following last week's announcement that there would be a launch delay, the space head module encasing CryoSat-2 has been removed from the launcher and returned to the integration facilities. Read more.
Dnepr ESA
Apr-07-2010
05:16
Cassini Dione flyby (503 km). NASA
Apr-13-2010
14:42 (TBD)
Picard Picard is an investigation dedicated to the simultaneous measurement of the absolute total and spectral solar irradiance, the diameter and solar shape, and to the Sun's interior probing by the helioseismology method. These measurements obtained all along the mission will allow to study their variations as a function of the solar activity. Dnepr CNES
Apr-28-2010
00:11
Cassini Enceladus flyby E-9 (99 km). NASA
May-17-2010
21:44
AKATSUKI The Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (PLANET-C) will enter an elliptical orbit, 300 to 60,000 km away from Venus's surface. This wide variation in distance will enable comprehensive observations of the planet's meteorological phenomena and of its surface, as well as observations of the atmospheric particles escaping from Venus into space. It will also be possible to take close-up photos of Venus, and to observe the storm winds that blow on the Venusian surface, at speeds that reach 100 m a second - 60 times the speed at which Venus rotates. This phenomenon remains the biggest mystery of Venus, as it cannot be explained meteorologically. AKATSUKI will employ infrared light to observe and elucidate the mysteries surrounding the atmosphere under the clouds and the conditions on the planet's surface. In addition, it will confirm the presence of active volcanoes and thunder.

Launch Day of the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 17 (H-IIA F17)
Mar-03-2010

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would like to announce that the launch of the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 17 (H-IIA F17) with the Venus Climate Orbiter "AKATSUKI" (PLANET-C) onboard was reported to the Space Activities Commission (SAC) as follows.

We will also provide orbit injection opportunities for the Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator "IKAROS" and four small payloads manufactured by universities and other institutions using the excessive launch capability of the H-IIA F17.

Scheduled date of Launch: May 18 (Tuesday,) 2010 (Japan Standard Time)

Launch time: 6:44:14 a.m. (Japan Standard Time)

Launch Windows: May 19 (Wed.) through June 3 (Thu.), 2010
*Launch time will be set for each launch day if the launch is delayed.

Launch site: Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Tanegashima Space Center
H-IIA JAXA
May-17-2010
21:44
IKAROS IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) will be the world's first solar powered sail craft employing both photon propulsion and thin film solar power generation during its interplanetary cruise. H-IIA (Secondary Payload) JAXA
May-18-2010
06:04
Cassini Enceladus flyby E-10 (198 km). NASA
May-20-2010
03:24
Cassini Titan flyby T-68 (1,400 km). NASA
Jun-05-2010
02:26
Cassini Titan flyby T-69 (2,044 km). NASA
Jun-22-2010
01:27
Cassini Titan flyby T-70 (955 km). NASA
Jun-2010 HAYABUSA (MUSES-C) HAYABUSA Sample Return Capsule with fragments of asteroid Itokawa landing. The planned landing site is Woomera, Australia.

Mission Status
Feb-24-2010

Hayabusa, now will pass within Moon's distance.

Hayabusa has reached the orbit that will pass through within the Moon's distance this June. The closest distance from the Earth will be 310 thousand kilometers. Hayabusa will stop the engine briefly at the beginning of March to conduct a precise orbit estimation for the subsequent flight. The ion engines aboard are functioning normally. Read more.
JAXA
Jun-2010 RadioAstron (Spektr-R) RadioAstron project is an international collaborative mission to launch a free flying satellite carrying a 10-meter radio telescope in high apogee orbit around the Earth. The aim of the mission is to use the space telescope to conduct interferometer observations in conjunction with the global ground radio telescope network in order to obtain images, coordinates, motions and evolution of angular structure of different radio emitting objects in the Universe with the extraordinary high angular resolution.

RadioAstron Status
Jan-01-2010

The RadioAstron spacecraft is undergoing the final assembly and tests in the Lavochkin Association. The launch is preliminary planned to happen in June 2010 from Baikonur (Kazakhstan). The Zenit-2 rocket and Fregat-SB booster will be used. Building of the tracking station in Pushchino on the basis of the 22-meter antennae is finished, tests are undergoing. The hard disc based RadioAstron data recording (RDR) system and the RadioAstron software correlator located in Astro Space Center are built and tested successfully -- interferometric fringes are found. Ground-based VLBI tests with RadioAstron observing modes involving RDR and RadioAstron software correlator will continue. Meanwhile international teams of scientists led by the Mission are preparing the fringe search and early science programs. Documents describing these programs as well as announcements of opportunities for observing with the RadioAstron spacecraft are to be announced at a later point.
Zenit 2 Fregat-SB ASC / Roscosmos
Jul-10-2010 Rosetta Asteroid Lutetia flyby.

Mission Operations Update
Feb-18-2010

Report for Period 30 January to 12 February 2010

After the successful test of the deep space hibernation mode (DSHM), which was covered in the previous reporting period, spacecraft maintenance activities have resumed as planned. Reaction wheel B was re-lubricated on DoY 034, with a run-in phase that lasted till DoY 042. It was subsequently added in the control loop of the spacecraft's attitude & orbit control system, which now operates on all four reaction wheels again. During the reporting period several payload tests were also conducted in preparation of the 12th payload check-out, which is planned for April-May 2010. Read more.
ESA
Sep-2010 ASTROSAT ASTROSAT will be a multi-wavelength astronomy mission in a 650-km, near-equatorial orbit. PSLV ISRO
Oct-2010 Chang'e 2 Chang'e-2's main mission is to obtain clearer and more detailed image data from the lunar surface and lunar polar areas. The CCD camera it will carry is of much higher resolution compared to Chang'e-1. Long March 3A CNSA
Nov-04-2010 EPOXI The Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization and Deep Impact Extended Investigation (EPOXI) will do a flyby of comet Hartley 2, which has never been explored.

Mission Status
Mar-03-2010

As the EPOCh team moves from processing data to writing papers about their results, the DIXI team is ramping up its activities in preparation for the encounter with comet Hartley 2 on November 4. Read More.
NASA
Nov-22-2010 (NET) Glory Glory is a remote-sensing Earth-orbiting observatory designed to achieve two separate mission objectives. One is to collect data on the chemical, microphysical, and optical properties, and spatial and temporal distributions of aerosols. The other is to continue collection of total solar irradiance data for the long-term climate record. Taurus XL NASA
Dec-2010 (TBC) LARES and 9 Cubesats Inaugural launch and maiden flight of ESA's new small launcher Vega, from Europe's Spaceport (CSG), French Guiana. LARES is a laser relativity satellite for the study of the Earth gravitational field and general relativity measurements. Cubesats: UNICubeSAT (Italy), est@r (Italy), AtmoCube (Italy), Swisscube (Switzerland), Xatcobeo (Spain), Robusta (France), OUFTI-1 (Belgium), PWsat (Poland) and Goliat (Romania). Vega ESA / Various
Late-2010 Lightsail-1 LightSail-1 -- the first of The Planetary Society's three spacecraft --will demonstrate that sunlight alone can propel a spacecraft in Earth orbit. TBD (Secondary Payload) The Planetary Society
Jan-16-2011 (TBC) SAC-D / Aquarius Aquarius is a focused satellite mission to measure global sea surface salinity (SSS). Delta II 7320-10 NASA
Feb-15-2011
04:42
Stardust-NExT New Exploration of Tempel 1 (NExT) mission will reuse NASA's Stardust spacecraft to revisit comet Tempel 1. This investigation will provide the first look at the changes to a comet nucleus produced after its close approach to the sun.

Mission Status
Mar-03-2010

All subsystems are nominal. Stardust's most recent pass was Monday. In the next week, four more passes are scheduled. Testing of software and memory configuration is underway. In May, the team plans to command to the spacecraft's B side and the tests will assure we will have a redundant capability for Encounter. Background sequence SN034 is active, and SN035 is in development.
NASA
Mar-18-2011
11:31
MESSENGER MESSENGER Mercury orbit insertion. NASA
Mar-31-2011 LISA Pathfinder LISA Pathfinder (also known as SMART-2, for 'Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology') aims to test several technologies critical for the subsequent joint ESA/NASA Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. The LISA mission is one proposed for ESA's Cosmic Vision Program.
Magnetic moment testing of LISA Pathfinder flight-model units
Nov-10-2009

Flight-model units for the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft are undergoing a series of tests to determine their magnetic characteristics. The purpose of the tests is to ensure that the stringent magnetic cleanliness requirements of the LISA Pathfinder mission will be met. Read more.
Vega ESA / NASA
Jul-2011 Dawn Vesta arrival.

Dawn Now Farther than the Sun as It Continues to Vesta
Feb-28-2010

Dawn made steady progress toward Vesta as it thrust for most of February. This month, Dawn controllers began formulating the specific instructions the spacecraft will use for operating at Vesta. They are beginning with the "approach phase," which commences in May 2011 and concludes in August 2011, when Dawn has thrust to the first science orbit from which it will conduct intensive science observations. By the time Dawn actually begins the approach phase, most of the instructions for its year at Vesta will have been prepared.

Hubble Space Telescope observed Vesta on February 25 and 28 to collect data that will help refine plans for Dawn's mission. On February 28, the spacecraft was as far from Earth as the Sun is, and it will never again be this close to the planet from which it began its mission.
NASA
Jul-2011 Swarm Swarm is a constellation of three magnetometry satellites that will provide the best ever survey of the geomagnetic field and its temporal evolution. TBD ESA
Aug-05-2011 Juno The mission proposes to place a spacecraft in a polar orbit around Jupiter to investigate the existence of an ice-rock core; determine the amount of global water and ammonia present in the atmosphere; study convection and deep wind profiles in the atmosphere; investigate the origin of the jovian magnetic field; and explore the polar magnetosphere. Atlas V 551 NASA
Sep-08-2011 GRAIL The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail. The mission also will answer longstanding questions about Earth's moon and provide scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. Delta II 2920-10 NASA
Oct-22-2011 (NET) MSL Curiosity Twice as long and three times as heavy as the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity will collect martian soil samples and rock cores and analyze them for organic compounds and environmental conditions that could have supported microbial life now or in the past. Atlas V 541 NASA
Nov-08-2011 Phobos-Grunt This mission's objectives are to collect soil samples from Phobos, a satellite of Mars and to bring the samples back to Earth for comprehensive scientific research into Phobos, Mars and Martian space. Zenit Fregat Roscosmos
Nov-08-2011 Yinghuo-1 The main scientific objectives include: (1) detailed investigation of the plasma environment and magnetic field; (2) study of Martian ion escape processes and possible mechanisms; (3) ionosphere occultation measurements between Yinghou-1 and Phobos-Grunt focusing on the sub-solar and midnight regions; and (4) observation of sand storms. Zenit Fregat (Secondary Payload) CNSA
2011 ADM-Aeolus The Atmospheric Dynamics Mission (ADM-Aeolus) will provide global observations of three-dimensional wind fields. Vega ESA
2011 Spektr-RG "Spektr-Rentgen-Gamma" (Spectrum-X-Gamma) will help scientists to discover 100 thousands of various galaxies and help solve the mystery of the dark matter. Soyuz Fregat Roscosmos
Feb-03-2012 (TBC) NuSTAR NuSTAR will be the first focusing hard X-ray telescope in orbit. Its design eliminates high detector backgrounds, allows true imaging, and permits the use of compact high performance detectors. Pegasus XL NASA
1Q-2012 Gaia Gaia is a global space astrometry mission. Its goal is to make the largest, most precise map of our Galaxy by surveying an unprecedented number of stars - more than a thousand million.

First Gaia mirrors completed
Jan-11-2010

The Gaia project recently passed another major milestone with the completion of one-third of the nine payload mirrors. Final acceptance for the M5 and two M4 mirrors was granted by Delivery Review Boards conducted at the premises of Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems (AMOS) in Liege, Belgium, towards the end of 2009. Read more.
Soyuz-STB/Fregat ESA
May-31-2012 RBSP The Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission will determine how varying inputs of solar energy form or change populations of relativistic electrons and ions in the Earth's radiation belts. Atlas V NASA
Jun-2012 Proba-3 Proba-3 will demonstrate the technologies required for formation flying of multiple spacecraft. An instrument to observe the solar corona will complement the demonstration. Vega ESA
Jul-2012 Dawn Vesta departure. NASA
Mid-2012 SELENE-2 SELENE-2 is a proposed Japanese moon lander as a successor to the SELENE (Kaguya) moon orbiter. H-IIA JAXA
Oct-2012 Microscope Microscope (MICRO-Satellite a trainee Compensee pour l'Observation du Principe d'Equivalence) is the third microsatellite of the CNES Myriade series. The main scientific objective is testing of the Equivalence Principle with a 100 times better accuracy than realised with experiments on Earth. Dnepr CNES
2012 Luna-Glob 1 Consists of orbiter, lander and 4 Japanese-built penetrators. Soyuz Fregat Roscosmos / JAXA
2012 VSOP-2 / ASTRO-G The mission will focus on observations in the millimeter wave-band that enables the imaging of objects directly with the best resolution. This will allow studies of fields where extreme space physical conditions are encountered, including the elucidation of "the scale of the accretion disk and jet generation and acceleration region surrounding the active galactic nuclei black holes." H-IIA JAXA
2012 (NET) HAYABUSA-2 JAXA is now considering a mission named Hayabusa-2 This is a similar mission as Hayabusa that will return samples of surface from an asteroid to the earth. Target asteroid, however, is different. Asteroid Itokawa explored by Hayabusa is rock-rich S-type one. Asteroid that Hayabusa-2 will visit at is a C-type asteroid. The asteroid currently considered as a target of Hayabusa-2 is Asteroid 1999 JU3. C-type asteroids are also rocky, but it is thought that their rocks contain much more organic matters. Hayabusa-2 will challenge very interesting objectives: what are original organic matters existed in the solar system?; and how they are related to life? TBD JAXA
2012 Chang'e 3 Lunar soft lander. Long March 3B CNSA
2012 World Space Observatory (Spektr-UF) The aim of the World Space Observatory/Ultraviolet - WSO/UV mission is to study the Universe in the 100 - 320 nm ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths range, which is beyond the reach of ground-based instruments. WSO-UV is a major international collaboration involving researchers from 16 countries with Russia playing the leading role. Zenit 2 Fregat-SB Roscosmos
Jan-2013 LADEE The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will study the tenuous atmosphere of the Moon. Minotaur-IV+ NASA
Feb-2013 IRIS The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission will use a solar telescope and spectrograph to explore the solar chromospheres. This is a crucial region for understanding energy transport into the solar wind and an archetype for stellar atmospheres. Recent discoveries have shown the chromosphere is significantly more dynamic and structured than previously thought. The unique instrument capabilities, coupled with state of the art 3-D modeling, will explore this dynamic region in detail. The mission will greatly extend the scientific output of existing heliophysics spacecraft that follow the effects of energy release processes from the sun to Earth. TBD NASA
Mar-2013 EarthCARE EarthCARE (Earth, Clouds, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) is a joint European-Japanese mission, which is to address the need for a better understanding of the interactions between cloud, radiative and aerosol processes that play a role in climate regulation. TBD ESA / JAXA
Q1-2013 Chandrayaan-2 The Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission involves a lunar orbiting spacecraft and a lander/rover (Luna-Glob 2) on the Moon's surface. GSLV ISRO / Roscosmos
2013 Luna-Glob 2 Landing module and moon rover. A joint orbiter-rover mission with Chandrayaan-2. Soyuz Fregat Roscosmos / ISRO
Jul-2013 GPM Core Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) will measure global precipitation, a key climate factor. Its science objectives are: to improve ongoing efforts to predict climate by providing near-global measurement of precipitation, its distribution, and physical processes; to improve the accuracy of weather and precipitation forecasts through more accurate measurement of rain rates and latent heating; and to provide more frequent and complete sampling of the Earth's precipitation. H-IIA NASA / JAXA
Late-2013 (NET) ESMO The European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) is planned to be the first European student mission to the Moon. TBD (Secondary Payload) ESA
Nov-18-2013 MAVEN The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) will explore the planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. EELV NASA
2013 GOLD The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission of opportunity is an ultraviolet imaging spectrograph that will fly on a geostationary satellite to measure densities and temperatures in the thermosphere and ionosphere. TBD NASA
2013 Taranis The general objective of the Taranis mission is to study magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere coupling via transient processes. At the beginning of the project proposal, the transient processes considered were essentially sprites and their associated phenomena, hence the name Taranis (Tool for the Analysis of RAdiation from lightNIng and Sprites). TBD CNES
TBD PROBA-V PROBA-V (Project for On-Board Autonomy - Vegetation) will carry a vegetation multispectral sensor to monitor vegetation cover. TBD ESA
Feb-2014 ASTRO-H Science payloads consists of Hard X-ray Telescope, Soft X-ray Telscope (spectrometer and imager), and a Soft Gamma-ray detector. H-IIA JAXA
May-2014 Rosetta Rosetta arrival at Comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA
May-2014 GEMS Among the thousands of X-ray sources observed with prior and current X-ray satellites, only one astrophysical object, the Crab Nebula, has been measured in polarized X-rays. By providing an increase in sensitivity of more than 100 times, the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX mission will detect and measure the polarization of the X-rays emitted by some of the most energetic and enigmatic objects in the cosmos. These include ultra-dense neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes, which are the remains of the dying explosions of very hot, massive stars, and ultra-massive black holes at the centers of distant galaxies. By studying the changes with time and energy of their polarized X-ray emission, the mission will probe the bending of space and the curving of light in regions of extreme gravity near these objects. TBD NASA
Jun-2014 JWST The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. It will have an 18-segment, 6.5-meter primary mirror and will reside in an L2 Lissajous orbit. Ariane 5 ECA NASA / ESA / CSA
Jul-2014 BepiColombo ESA's Cornerstone mission to Mercury, it will endure extreme temperatures to bring us new images and data about composition and history of the least explored planet in the inner Solar System. BepiColombo consists of two orbiters. Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) will observe the surface and interior, built by ESA. Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) will observe the magnetic field and the magnetosphere, built by JAXA. Soyuz Fregat ESA / JAXA
Oct-15-2014 MMS Magnetosphere Multiscale (MMS) consist of four identical spacecraft flying in formation studying the solar magnetosphere. Atlas V NASA
Nov-2014 Rosetta Philae landing on Comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA
Nov-2014 GPM-LIO Global Precipitation Monitor Low-Inclination Orbiter (GPM-LIO) will measure global precipitation, a key climate factor. Its science objectives are: to improve ongoing efforts to predict climate by providing near-global measurement of precipitation, its distribution, and physical processes; to improve the accuracy of weather and precipitation forecasts through more accurate measurement of rain rates and latent heating; and to provide more frequent and complete sampling of the Earth's precipitation. Taurus-XL NASA
2014 Chang'e 4 Automated sample return. Long March 5 (CZ-5/E) CNSA
2014 Luna-Grunt 1 Orbiter and a lander. Soyuz Fregat Roscosmos
Feb-2015 Dawn Ceres arrival. NASA
May-29-2015 SMAP The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission will enable global soil moisture mapping with unprecedented resolution, sensitivity, area coverage, and revisit. SMAP draws heavily upon the heritage of the Hydrosphere State (Hydros) mission which was cancelled due to budget constraints in late 2005. Minotaur IV NASA
May-2015 Discovery-12 "Discovery-12" mission in pre-formulation phase. TBD NASA
Jul-14-2015
11:59
New Horizons New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission arrival at Pluto. NASA
Oct-2015 GOES-R GOES-R series is being developed to replace GOES N/O/P series of satellites. Delta IV Medium+ (4,2) NASA / NOAA
2015 MoonLITE The Moon Lightweight Interior and Telecoms Experiment (MoonLITE), is a proposed British space mission with NASA cooperation to explore the Moon. TBD BNSC
2015 (NET) SAFIR The Single Aperture Far-Infrared Observatory (SAFIR) is a large cryogenic space-based telescope optimized for observations in the mid-infrared to submillimeter wavelength range. TBD NASA
2015 Luna-Grunt 2 Moon lander with sample return. Soyuz Fregat Roscosmos
Feb-2016 ICESat-II The ICESat-II mission is to deploy an ICESat follow-on satellite to continue the assessment of polar ice changes. ICESat-II is also expected to measure vegetation canopy heights, allowing estimates of biomass and carbon in aboveground vegetation in conjunction with related missions. TBD NASA
Apr-2016 JDEM The Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) will make precise measurements of the expansion rate of the universe to understand how this rate has changed with time. These measurements will yield vital clues about the nature of dark energy. TBD NASA / DoE
2016 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and EDL Demonstrator The first mission within the ESA-NASA ExoMars Programme, scheduled to arrive at Mars in 2016, consists of an Orbiter plus an Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM). The main objectives of this mission are to search for evidence of methane, and other trace gases, in the Martian atmosphere and to test key technologies in preparation for ESA's contribution to a 2020 international mission. Atlas V 421 ESA / NASA
2016 Earth Explorer 7 Three missions undergoing feasibility studies; BIOMASS, CoReH2O and PREMIER. One will be selected in 2011. TBD ESA
2016 Millimetron The goal of the project is to construct space observatory operating in millimeter, sub-millimeter and infrared wavelength ranges using 12-m cryogenic telescope in a single-dish mode and as an interferometer with the space-ground and space-space baselines (the later after the launch of the second identical space telescope). The observatory will provide possibility to conduct astronomical observations with super high sensitivity (down to nanoJansky level) in a single dish mode, and observations with super high angular resolution in an interferometric mode. Proton ASC / Roscosmos
2016 Venera-D Venus lander planned to survive from 2 months to 1 year on the surface. Soyuz Fregat Roscosmos
Feb-2017 GOES-S GOES-S series is being developed to replace GOES N/O/P series of satellites. Delta IV Medium+ (4,2) NASA / NOAA
Oct-16-2017 Juno Jupiter impact. NASA
2017 SIM Lite SIM Lite (Space Interferometry Mission Lite) will determine the positions and distances of stars several hundred times more accurately than any previous program. This accuracy will allow SIM to determine the distances to stars throughout the galaxy and to probe nearby stars for Earth-sized planets. Atlas V 531 NASA
2017 New Frontiers 3 Three missions currently in assessment phase: SAGE, Osiris-Rex and MoonRise. The final project to be selected in mid-2011. TBD NASA
2017 Cosmic Vision M-class #1 Launch slot 1 for a Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 M-class mission. The M-class missions currently in assessment phase are PLATO, Solar Orbiter and SPICA. Down-selection in mid-2011. TBD ESA
Aug-2018 Solar Probe+ Solar Probe+ will fly into one of the last unexplored regions of the solar system, the Sun's atmosphere or corona, for the first time. Approaching as close as 3 RS above the Sun's surface, Solar Probe+ will employ a combination of in-situ measurements and imaging to achieve the mission's primary scientific goal: to understand how the Sun's corona is heated and how the solar wind is accelerated. Atlas V 551 NASA
2018 Earth Explorer 8 ESA's Earth Observation Programme mission launch slot. TBD ESA
2018 SELENE-3 SELENE-3 moon mission in formulation phase. TBD JAXA
2018 Cosmic Vision M-class #2 Launch slot 2 for a Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 M-class mission. The M-class missions currently in assessment phase are PLATO, Solar Orbiter and SPICA. Down-selection in mid-2011. TBD ESA
2018 OSIRIS OSIRIS is a Russian space optical interferometer project. The goal of the project is to measure parallaxes, coordinates and proper motions of stars with an accuracy of few microarcseconds. TBD Roscosmos
2018 Mars 2018 NASA Rover "Mars 2018 NASA Rover" mission under study. To be launched together with ESA's ExoMars Programme Rover. TBD NASA / ESA
2018 ExoMars Programme Rover The ExoMars Rover provides key mission capabilities: surface mobility, subsurface drilling and automatic sample collection, processing, and distribution to instruments. It hosts a suite of analytical instruments dedicated to exobiology and geochemistry research. The 2018 mission is a NASA-led mission and includes two rovers, one European and the other American. Both rovers will be transported in the same aeroshell and will be delivered to the same site on Mars. TBD NASA / ESA
2018 (NET) ILN International Lunar Network (ILN), aims to provide an organizing theme for all landed science missions in the 2010s by involving each landed station as a node in a network of geophysical stations (Nodes I, II, III & IV). TBD NASA
2020 LISA Detecting gravitational waves is the goal of ESA's future LISA mission. LISA will search for gravitational radiation from astronomical sources, testing the fundamental theories of gravitation. ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 L-class mission concept. TBD ESA / NASA
2020 JEO The Jupiter Europa Orbiter's (JEO) main focus is to explore Europa to investigate its habitability. While the primary focus of JEO is to orbit Europa, the science return encompasses the entire Jovian system, especially as is relevant to Europa's potential habitability. JEO uniquely includes flybys of Io and Europa, and includes flybys of Ganymede and Callisto, along with about 2.5 years observing Jupiter's atmosphere, magnetosphere, and rings. TBD NASA
2020 JGO Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter (JGO) will focus on its three science sub-goals: How did the Jupiter system form?; How does the Jupiter system work?; and Does the Jupiter system harbor a habitable world? ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 L-class mission concept. TBD ESA
2020 Mars Scout-3 "Mars Scout-3" mission in pre-formulation phase. TBD NASA
2021 IXO In July 2008, the International X-ray Observatory (IXO) was announced to the astronomical community. IXO is a joint X-ray observatory with participation from ESA, NASA and JAXA. This mission supersedes the Constellation-X and XEUS mission concepts. ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 L-class mission concept. Atlas V 551 or Ariane V NASA / ESA / JAXA
2022 Mars Lander 2022 "Mars Lander 2022" mission in pre-formulation phase. TBD NASA
2022 Lunar-7 "Lunar-7" mission in pre-formulation phase. NASA's Lunar Quest Program is a multi-element program consisting of flight missions, instruments for lunar missions of opportunity, as well as research and analysis efforts. An additional component of the program is the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI), managed by the Ames Research Center. Marshall has program management responsibility for the Lunar Quest Program providing overall mission management oversight. TBD NASA
2024 Mars Orbiter 2024 "Mars Orbiter 2024" mission in pre-formulation phase. TBD NASA
2025 Lunar-8 "Lunar-8" mission in pre-formulation phase. NASA's Lunar Quest Program is a multi-element program consisting of flight missions, instruments for lunar missions of opportunity, as well as research and analysis efforts. An additional component of the program is the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI), managed by the Ames Research Center. Marshall has program management responsibility for the Lunar Quest Program providing overall mission management oversight. TBD NASA
2026 Mars Scout-4 "Mars Scout-4" mission in pre-formulation phase. TBD NASA
2028 Mars Lander 2028 "Mars Lander 2028" mission in pre-formulation phase. TBD NASA
2028 Lunar-9 "Lunar-9" mission in pre-formulation phase. NASA's Lunar Quest Program is a multi-element program consisting of flight missions, instruments for lunar missions of opportunity, as well as research and analysis efforts. An additional component of the program is the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI), managed by the Ames Research Center. Marshall has program management responsibility for the Lunar Quest Program providing overall mission management oversight. TBD NASA
2030 TSSM The Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM) would consist of a NASA orbiter and an ESA lander and research balloon. TBD NASA / ESA





Last Updated Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 19:04 UTC|

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Countdown

CryoSat-2 launch:
TBD

Cassini Titan flyby T-67:
24 days, 1 hours, 55 minutes

AKATSUKI launch:
66 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes