Unmanned space mission

Unmanned space missions are those using remote-controlled spacecraft. The first such mission was the Sputnik I mission, launched October 4, 1957. Unmanned missions are often more effective in carrying out scientific and observational missions than manned space missions, due to lower cost and lower risk factors.

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.

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

Table of contents 1 Early Earth-orbital missions 2 Earth observation satellites 3 Communication satellites 4 Lunar exploration 5 Solar System exploration 6 External link

Early Earth-orbital missions

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

Earth observation satellites

• Tiros program[?] (1960s).
• Nimbus program[?] (1960s).
• Landsat program[?].

Communication satellites

• Syncom program (1961-1964).
• Telstar (1962).
• Relay program[?] (1963).

Lunar exploration

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

Solar System exploration

• Mars probe program.
• Venera program - Venus orbital and landing.
• Vega program - Venus and Comet Halley
• Pioneer Venus project - Venus orbital and landing.
• Mariner program - Mercury, Venus and Mars[?], flyby and orbital.
• Viking program - Mars orbiter and lander (1974).
• Mars Pathfinder - Mars lander and wheeled robot (1996)
• Mars Climate Orbiter[?].
• Mars Odyssey.
• Mars Polar Lander[?].
• Viking program - Mars lander.
• Pioneer program - Juptier 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".
• Magellan probe - Venus orbiter
• Cassini program - Saturn orbiter and Titan lander Huygens[?].
• NEAR Shoemaker - asteroid lander, launched 1996.
• Deep Space 1 - comet/asteroid flyby, 1998-2000.
• CONTOUR - planned comet flyby

See also:

• space exploration,
• manned space missions,
• satellite.
• Timeline of artificial satellites and space probes

External link

1. http://sci.esa.int/home/ourmissions/index.cfm