A space probe is an unmanned space mission in which a spacecraft leaves Earth's orbit. The first successful space probe was the Soviet Luna 1, which studied the Moon in 1959. Subsequently, space agencies in the United States, Europe and Japan have flown probes to nearly every planet in the solar system and several asteroids and comets.

List of space probes

This is a condensed version of the more detailed List of planetary probes.

Lunar probes

• Luna program - Soviet Lunar exploration (1959-1976).
• Ranger program - US Lunar hard-landing probes (1961-1965).
• Zond program - Soviet Lunar exploration (1964-1970).
• Surveyor program - US Lunar soft-landing probe (1966-1968).
• Lunar Orbiter program - US Lunar orbital (1966-1967).
• Lunokhod program - Soviet Lunar Rover probes (1970-1973).
• Muses-A mission (Hiten and Hagoromo) - Japanese Lunar orbital and hard-landing probes (1990-1993).
• Clementine - US Lunar orbital (1998).
• Lunar Prospector - US Lunar orbital (1998-1999).
• Smart 1 - European Lunar orbital (2003).
• LUNAR-A - Japanese lunar orbiter and penetrators, launch scheduled for 2004 but delayed ever since.
• SELENE - Japanese lunar orbiter and lander, launch postponed to Jan 2006.

Mars probes

• Zond program - failed Soviet flyby probe
• Mars probe program - Soviet orbiters and landers
• Viking program - Two US orbiters and landers (1974)
• Phobos program - Failed Soviet orbiters and Phobos landers
• Mars Pathfinder - Lander and wheeled robot (1996)
• Mars Surveyor '98 program (Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander) - Failed US probes
• Mars Odyssey - US orbiter
• Mars Observer - failed US Mars orbiter
• Mars Express (Mars Express Orbiter and Beagle 2) - European orbiter and failed lander 2003)
• Mars Exploration Rovers - US rovers (2004-present)
• Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - US, launched 2005
• Mars Science Laboratory - US, to be launched 2009

General solar system probes

• Venera program - Soviet Venus orbiter and lander
• Vega program - Soviet mission to Venus and Comet Halley
• Zond program - Soviet flyby missions to the Moon, Venus, and Mars
• Pioneer Venus project - US Venus orbiter
• Mariner program - US Mercury, Venus and Mars flybys
• Pioneer program - US Jupiter and Saturn flybys
• Voyager program - US Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune flyby and study of interstellar space
• Giotto mission - European flyby of Comet Halley (1986)
• Sakigake probe - Japanese flyby of Comet Halley (1986)
• Suisei probe - Japanese flyby of Comet Halley (1986)
• Galileo probe - US Jupiter orbiter and atmosphere probe
• Magellan probe - US Venus orbiter
• Cassini-Huygens - US-European Saturn orbiter and Titan lander Huygens (1997-present)
• NEAR Shoemaker - US asteroid lander, launched 1996
• Deep Space 1 - US comet/asteroid flyby, 1998-2000
• Stardust probe - US comet flyby and sample return, launched 1999, returned January 15, 2006
• Genesis - first solar wind sample return mission, 2001-2004 (crash)
• CONTOUR - US comet flyby mission; launch failure in 2003
• Hayabusa - Japanese asteroid orbiter, lander and sample return, launched 2003
• Rosetta - European comet orbiter and lander (Philae); launched 2004
• MESSENGER - US Mercury orbiter, launched 2004
• Deep Impact - successful US comet impactor, launched 2005
• Venus Express - ESA probe to be sent for the observation of the Venus's weather in 2005.
• New Horizons – launched on January 19, 2006, it will be the first probe to visit Pluto (in July 2015)
• Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), scheduled to launch in the summer of 2008.

See also

• Unmanned space mission
• geosynchronous satellite
• List of unmanned spacecraft by program
• manned space mission
• satellite
• space exploration
• space observatory
• Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes
• Timeline of planetary exploration
• List of planetary probes
• Landings on other planets
• Unmanned aerial vehicle

Unmanned spacecraft

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