2 Jan 1959 – 22 Aug 1976 The Soviet Luna programme
≈ 17 years, 7 months
4 Jan 1959 Luna 1 misses the Moon
12 Sep 1959, 06:39 – 13 Sep 1959, 21:02 Luna 2
≈ 1 day, 14 hours · Baikonur, Site 1
7 Oct 1959 Luna 3 photographs the far side
12 Feb 1961 – Jun 1985 The Soviet Venus programme
≈ 24 years, 4 months
27 Aug 1962, 06:53 – 3 Jan 1963 Mariner 2
≈ 4 months, 9 days · Launch Complex 12, Cape Canaveral
14 Dec 1962 Mariner 2 passes Venus
28 Nov 1964, 14:22 – 21 Dec 1967 Mariner 4
≈ 3 years, 22 days · Launch Complex 12, Cape Canaveral
15 Jul 1965 Mariner 4 photographs Mars
3 Feb 1966, 18:45:30 Luna 9 lands softly on the Moon
18 Oct 1967 Venera 4 falls into Venus’s air
17 Aug 1970, 05:38 – 15 Dec 1970 Venera 7
≈ 4 months · Baikonur Cosmodrome
24 Sep 1970 Luna 16 brings Moon soil home by robot
Steppe south-east of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan
17 Nov 1970 – 14 Sep 1971 Lunokhod 1 roams the Moon
≈ 10 months
15 Dec 1970, 05:37 Venera 7 lands on Venus
30 May 1971, 22:23 – 27 Oct 1972 Mariner 9
≈ 1 year, 5 months · Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral
14 Nov 1971 Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars
2 Dec 1971 Mars 3 lands, and falls silent
3 Mar 1972, 01:49 – 23 Jan 2003 Pioneer 10
≈ 30 years, 10 months · Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral
6 Apr 1973, 02:11 – 30 Sep 1995 Pioneer 11
≈ 22 years, 5 months · Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral
3 Nov 1973, 05:45 – 24 Mar 1975 Mariner 10
≈ 1 year, 4 months · Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral
4 Dec 1973 Pioneer 10 reaches Jupiter
29 Mar 1974 Mariner 10 flies past Mercury
20 Aug 1975, 21:22 – Nov 1982 Viking 1
≈ 7 years, 2 months · Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral
22 Oct 1975 Venera 9 photographs the surface of Venus
20 Jul 1976, 11:53:06 Viking 1 lands on Chryse Planitia
20 Aug 1977, 14:29 – ongoing Voyager 2
Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral
5 Sep 1977, 12:56 – ongoing Voyager 1
Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral
8 Aug 1978 – 4 May 1989 NASA’s eleven-year gap
≈ 10 years, 8 months
5 Mar 1979 Voyager 1 at Jupiter
9 Jul 1979 Voyager 2 at Jupiter
12 Nov 1980 Voyager 1 at Saturn
26 Aug 1981 Voyager 2 at Saturn
1 Mar 1982 Venera 13 sends colour pictures from Venus
15 Dec 1984, 09:16 – 30 Jan 1987 Vega 1
≈ 2 years, 1 month · Baikonur Cosmodrome
7 Jan 1985 Sakigake, Japan’s first probe beyond Earth
Kagoshima Space Center, Uchinoura
2 Jul 1985, 11:23 – 23 Jul 1992 Giotto
≈ 7 years · Guiana Space Centre, Kourou
24 Jan 1986 Voyager 2 at Uranus
6 Mar 1986 Vega 1 meets Halley’s Comet
14 Mar 1986, 00:03 Giotto flies into Halley’s Comet
4 May 1989, 18:47 – 13 Oct 1994 Magellan
≈ 5 years, 5 months · Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center
25 Aug 1989 Voyager 2 at Neptune
18 Oct 1989, 16:53 – 21 Sep 2003 Galileo
≈ 13 years, 11 months · Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center
14 Feb 1990 Pale Blue Dot
6 Oct 1990, 11:47 – 30 Jun 2009 Ulysses
≈ 18 years, 8 months · Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center
Apr 1992 – Mar 2000 “Faster, better, cheaper”
≈ 7 years, 11 months
28 Aug 1993 Galileo finds a moon around an asteroid
16 Jul 1994 – 22 Jul 1994 Shoemaker–Levy 9 hits Jupiter
6 days
17 Feb 1996, 20:43 – 28 Feb 2001 NEAR Shoemaker
≈ 5 years · Launch Complex 17, Cape Canaveral
4 Dec 1996, 06:58 – 27 Sep 1997 Mars Pathfinder
≈ 9 months, 27 days · Launch Complex 17, Cape Canaveral
4 Jul 1997 – ongoing An unbroken robotic watch on Mars
4 Jul 1997, 16:56:55 Pathfinder bounces onto Mars
15 Oct 1997, 08:43 – 15 Sep 2017, 11:55 Cassini–Huygens
≈ 19 years, 11 months · Launch Complex 40, Cape Canaveral
23 Sep 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter lost to a units mix-up
9 May 2003, 04:29 – 13 Jun 2010 Hayabusa
≈ 7 years, 1 month · Kagoshima Space Center, Uchinoura
2 Jun 2003, 17:45 – ongoing Mars Express
Baikonur Cosmodrome
8 Jul 2003, 03:18 – 13 Feb 2019 Opportunity
≈ 15 years, 7 months · Launch Complex 17, Cape Canaveral
25 Dec 2003 Beagle 2 falls silent
25 Jan 2004, 05:05 Opportunity lands in a crater
2 Mar 2004, 07:17 – 30 Sep 2016 Rosetta
≈ 12 years, 7 months · Guiana Space Centre, Kourou
1 Jul 2004 Cassini enters orbit around Saturn
3 Aug 2004, 06:15 – 30 Apr 2015 MESSENGER
≈ 10 years, 8 months · Launch Complex 17, Cape Canaveral
14 Jan 2005, 11:38 Huygens lands on Titan
4 Jul 2005, 05:52 Deep Impact hits a comet
15 Jan 2006, 10:12 Stardust brings comet dust to Utah
Utah Test and Training Range, near Dugway
19 Jan 2006, 19:00 – ongoing New Horizons
Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral
24 Aug 2006 The IAU demotes Pluto
Prague Congress Centre
14 Sep 2007 – ongoing The new race to the Moon
27 Sep 2007, 11:34 – 1 Nov 2018 Dawn
≈ 11 years · Launch Complex 17, Cape Canaveral
22 Oct 2008, 00:52 – 28 Aug 2009 Chandrayaan-1
≈ 10 months, 10 days · Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota
20 May 2010, 21:58 – 18 Sep 2025 Akatsuki
≈ 15 years, 4 months · Yoshinobu Launch Complex, Tanegashima Space Center
13 Jun 2010, 13:51 Hayabusa’s capsule lands at Woomera
Woomera Prohibited Area, South Australia
5 Aug 2011, 16:25 – ongoing Juno
Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral
26 Nov 2011, 15:02 – ongoing Curiosity
Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral
6 Aug 2012, 05:17 Curiosity lands in Gale Crater
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena
25 Aug 2012 Voyager 1 leaves the heliosphere
5 Nov 2013, 09:08 – Apr 2022 Mangalyaan, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission
≈ 8 years, 5 months · Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota
14 Dec 2013, 13:11 Chang’e 3 lands on the Moon
20 Jan 2014, 18:18 Rosetta wakes up
European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt
24 Sep 2014 Mangalyaan reaches Mars
ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network, Bengaluru
12 Nov 2014, 15:34 Philae lands on a comet
3 Dec 2014, 04:22 – ongoing Hayabusa2
Yoshinobu Launch Complex, Tanegashima Space Center
14 Jul 2015, 11:49 New Horizons flies past Pluto
28 Oct 2015 Cassini flies through Enceladus’s plume
6 Dec 2015 Akatsuki reaches Venus at the second try
5 Jul 2016, 03:53 Juno enters orbit around Jupiter
8 Sep 2016, 23:05 – ongoing OSIRIS-REx
Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral
26 Apr 2017 Cassini’s Grand Finale begins
12 Aug 2018, 07:31 – ongoing Parker Solar Probe
Space Launch Complex 37, Cape Canaveral
20 Oct 2018, 01:45 – ongoing BepiColombo
Guiana Space Centre, Kourou
5 Nov 2018 Voyager 2 leaves the heliosphere
1 Jan 2019, 05:33 New Horizons flies past Arrokoth
3 Jan 2019, 02:26 Chang’e 4 lands on the far side of the Moon
23 Jul 2020, 04:41 – ongoing Tianwen-1
Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan
30 Jul 2020, 11:50 – ongoing Perseverance
Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral
23 Nov 2020, 20:30 – 16 Dec 2020, 17:59 Chang’e 5
≈ 22 days, 21 hours · Wenchang Space Launch Site, Hainan
5 Dec 2020 Hayabusa2’s capsule lands in the outback
Woomera Prohibited Area, South Australia
9 Feb 2021 Hope, the UAE’s orbiter, reaches Mars
19 Apr 2021, 07:34 Ingenuity flies on Mars
14 May 2021, 23:18 Zhurong lands on Utopia Planitia
25 Dec 2021, 12:20 – ongoing James Webb Space Telescope
Guiana Space Centre, Kourou
24 Jan 2022 Webb reaches its post beyond the Moon
21 Sep 2022 Webb sees Neptune’s rings
26 Sep 2022, 23:14 DART knocks an asteroid off course
14 Apr 2023, 12:14 – ongoing Juice
Guiana Space Centre, Kourou
14 Jul 2023, 09:05 – 4 Sep 2023 Chandrayaan-3
≈ 1 month, 22 days · Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota
23 Aug 2023, 12:33 Vikram lands near the lunar south pole
24 Sep 2023, 14:52 OSIRIS-REx drops Bennu at Utah
Utah Test and Training Range, near Dugway
19 Jan 2024, 15:20 SLIM lands on its nose
20 Apr 2024 JPL talks Voyager 1 back to health
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena
25 Jun 2024, 06:07 Chang’e 6 brings back the far side
Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia
14 Oct 2024, 16:06 – ongoing Europa Clipper
Launch Complex 39A, Kennedy Space Center
24 Dec 2024 Parker skims the Sun