Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 195.149.37.38 (talk) at 16:05, 7 June 2002 (*link correct). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Unmanned space missions--those using remote-controlled spacecraft--often are more effective in carrying out scientific and observational missions than manned space missions. Most American unmanned missions have been coordinated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and European missions by ESOC, part of ESA (The European Space Agency)

ESA has conducted relatively few space exploration missions (one example is the Giotto mission, which encountered comet Halley). ESA has, however, launched various spacecraft to carry out astronomy, and is a collaborator with NASA on the Hubble space telescope.

More information can be found at ].

We need more general information here!

The first such mission was the Sputnik I mission, launched October 4, 1957.

Unmanned programs through the ages (first mission year given, if known)

Early Earth-orbital missions

• Sputnik program, 1957 - Earth orbit
• Explorer program, 1958 - Earth orbit
• Vanguard program, 1959 - Earth orbit

Weather satellites

• Tiros program (1960s)
• Nimbus program (1960s)
• Landsat program

Communication satellites

• Telstar (1960s)

Lunar exploration

• Luna program, 1959 - Lunar exploration
• Lunokhod program - unmanned Lunar Rover probes
• Ranger program - Lunar hard-landing probes
• Surveyor program - Lunar soft-landing probe
• Orbiter program - Lunar orbital
• Clementine mission - Lunar orbital (1998)

Solar System exploration

• Mars program
• Venera program - Venus orbital and landing
• Mariner program - Mercury, Venus and Mars, flyby and orbital
• Viking program - Mars orbiter and lander (1974)
• Mars Climate Orbiter
• Mars Odyssey
• Mars Polar Lander
• Viking program - Mars lander
• Pioneer program - Jupiter and Saturn flyby
• Voyager program - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune flyby
• Giotto mission - Flyby of the Halley comet (1986)
• Galileo probe - Jupiter orbiter and "lander"
• Cassini program - Saturn orbiter and Titan (european) lander Huygens
• NEAR Shoemaker - asteroid lander, launched 1996
• Deep Space 1 - comet/asteroid flyby, 1998-2000

See also space exploration, manned space missions.