List of heliophysics missions

Last updated November 01, 2024

This is a list of missions supporting heliophysics, including solar observatory missions, solar orbiters, and spacecraft studying the solar wind.^[1]

Past and current missions

Spacecraft	Launch date	Operator	Orbit	Outcome	Remarks	Carrier rocket
Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite (ACRIMSAT)	20 December 1999	NASA	low Earth (Sun-synchronous)	Success	Contact lost 14 December 2013	Taurus 2110
Aditya-L1	2 September 2023	ISRO	Earth-Sun L1 Halo	Operational		PSLV-XL(C57)
Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)	25 August 1997	NASA	Earth-Sun L1 Lissajous	Operational		Delta II 7920-8
Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM)	25 April 2007	NASA	low Earth (Sun-synchronous)	Success		Pegasus-XL
Ariel 1	26 April 1962	SERC/NASA	low Earth	Success	Deorbited 24 May 1976	Thor DM-19 Delta
Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses (BARREL)	January 2013	NASA	atmospheric	Success	total of 63 flights, last launched 30 August 2016	high-altitude balloons
Cluster	4 June 1996	ESA	highly elliptical geocentric	Failure at launch	4 spacecraft	Ariane 5G
Cluster II	16 July 2000	ESA	high Earth	Success	4 Spacecraft, replaced the original Cluster mission that failed on launch.	Soyuz-U/Fregat
Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigations (CINDI)	16 April 2008	NASA	low Earth	Success	Deorbited 28 November 2015	Pegasus-XL
Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR)	11 February 2015	NASA/NOAA	Earth-Sun L1 Lissajous	Operational		Falcon 9 v1.1
Double Star	29 December 2003	CNSA/ESA	highly elliptical geocentric	Operational	2 spacecraft, one was deorbited 14 October 2007 the other remains in orbit	Long March 2C
Equator-S	2 December 1997	ISTP/MPE	geosynchronous transfer	Partial success (terminated early)	Contact lost 1 May 1998	Ariane 4 (44P)
Explorer 10	25 March 1961	NASA	highly elliptical geocentric	Success	Deorbited 1 June 1968	Thor DM-19 Delta
Explorer 50 (IMP-8)	26 October 1973	NASA	high Earth	Success	Contact lost 7 October 2006	Delta (1913)
Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST)	21 August 1996	NASA	low Earth	Success	Decommissioned 4 May 2009	Pegasus-XL
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)	16 October 1975	NASA/NOAA	geostationary	Operational	18 spacecraft launched, 5 still in operation, 1 more planned	various
Geotail	24 July 1992	ISAS/NASA	high Earth	Success	Deactivated 28 November 2022.	Delta II 6925
Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) (aboard SES-14)	26 January 2018	NASA	geosynchronous	Operational		Ariane 5 ECA
Helios	10 December 1974	NASA / DFVLR	heliocentric	Success	2 spacecraft, last contact 10 Feb 1986	Titan IIIE/Star-37
Hinode (Solar-B)	23 September 2006	JAXA / NASA / PPARC	low Earth (Sun-synchronous)	Operational		M-V
IBEX	19 October 2008	NASA	high Earth	Operational		Pegasus-XL/Star-27
IMAGE	25 March 2000	NASA	high Earth	Success	Contact lost 18 December 2005	Delta II 7326-9.5
Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS)	27 June 2013	NASA	low Earth (Sun-synchronous)	Operational		Pegasus-XL
ISEE-1	22 October 1977	NASA	high Earth	Success	Deorbited 26 September 1987	Thor-Delta 2914
ISEE-2	22 October 1977	NASA	high Earth	Success	Deorbited 26 September 1987	Thor-Delta 2914
International Cometary Explorer (ICE)	12 August 1978	NASA	Earth-Sun L1 halo to heliocentric	Success	Contact lost 16 September 2014	Delta 2914
Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON)	11 October 2019	SSL/NASA	low Earth	Operational		Pegasus-XL
Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS)	13 March 2015	NASA	highly elliptical geocentric	Operational	4 spacecraft	Atlas V 421
Orbiting Geophysical Observatory (OGO)	4 September 1964	NASA	various geocentric	Success (mostly)	6 satellites, last Deorbited 29 August 2020	various Agena
PAMELA detector (located on Resurs-DK No.1)	15 June 2006	PAMELA group	low Earth	Success	Decommissioned 7 February 2016	Soyuz-U
Parker Solar Probe formerly Solar Probe Plus	12 August 2018	NASA	heliocentric	Operational		Delta IV Heavy
Polar	24 February 1996	NASA	highly elliptical geocentric	Success	Decommissioned 28 April 2008	Delta II 7925-10
Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager (RHESSI)	5 February 2002	NASA	low Earth	Success	Decommissioned 16 August 2018 Deorbited 2023	Pegasus-XL
Skylab and the Apollo Telescope Mount	14 May 1973	NASA	low Earth	Success	Deorbited 11 July 1979	Saturn INT-21
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)	2 December 1995	ESA/NASA	Earth-Sun L1 halo	Operational		Atlas IIAS
Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX)	3 July 1992	NASA/MPE	low Earth	Success	Deorbited 13 November 2012	Scout G-1
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)	11 February 2010	NASA	geosynchronous	Operational		Atlas V 401
Solar Maximum Mission (SMM)	14 February 1980	NASA	low Earth	Success	Deorbited 2 December 1989	Delta 3910
Solar Orbiter	10 February 2020	ESA/NASA	24°-inclination heliocentric	Operational		Atlas V 411
Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE)	25 January 2003	NASA/LASP	low Earth	Success	Decommissioned 25 February 2020	Pegasus-XL
Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)	25 October 2006	NASA	heliocentric	Operational	2 spacecraft, 1 still operational	Delta II 7925
Space Environment Testbeds (on DSX)	25 June 2019	AFRL	medium Earth	Success	Decommissioned 31 May 2021	Falcon Heavy
Space Technology 5 (ST5)	22 March 2006	NASA	low Earth (Sun-synchronous)	Success	3 spacecraft, decommissioned 30 June 2006	Pegasus-XL
Spartan 201 (STS-87)	19 November 1997	NASA	low Earth	Failure during deployment	Landed 5 December 1997	Space Shuttle Columbia
Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE)	26 February 1998	LASP	low Earth	Success	Deorbited 13 December 2003	Pegasus-XL
Swarm	22 November 2013	ESA	low Earth	Operational	3 spacecraft	Rokot / Briz-KM
Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED)	7 December 2001	NASA	low Earth	Operational		Delta II 7920-10
Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS)	17 February 2007	NASA	various	Operational	5 spacecraft	Delta II 7925-10C
Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE)	1 April 1998	NASA	low Earth (Sun-synchronous)	Success	Decommissioned 21 June 2010	Pegasus-XL
TWINS A & B	28 June 2006	NASA	highly elliptical geocentric (Molniya)	Success	2 spacecraft, decommissioned 2020	various
Ulysses	6 October 1990	NASA/ESA	high-inclination heliocentric	Success	Decommissioned 30 June 2009	Space Shuttle Discovery
Van Allen Probes formerly Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP)	30 August 2012	NASA	highly elliptical geocentric	Success	2 spacecraft, decommissioned 2019	Atlas V 401
Voyager	5 September 1977	NASA	heliocentric to galactocentric	Operational	2 spacecraft, both still in operation	Titan IIIE Centaur
WIND	1 November 1994	NASA	Earth-Sun L1 halo	Operational		Delta II (7925–10)
Yohkoh (Solar-A)	30 August 1991	ISAS / NASA / PPARC	low Earth	Success	Deorbited 12 September 2005	Mu-3S-II

Proposed missions

Spacecraft	Launch date	Operator	Orbit	Outcome	Remarks	Carrier rocket
PROBA-3	29 November 2024	ESA	Highly elliptical orbit	Planned	2 spacecraft	PSLV-XL
SunRISE	2024	NASA	supersynchronous geosynchronous Earth orbit	Planned	6 CubeSats^[2]
PUNCH	27 February 2025	NASA	Sun-synchronous orbit	Planned	4 microsatellites	Falcon 9
TRACERS	April 2025	NASA		Planned	2 orbiters	Falcon 9
EZIE	2025	NASA		Planned	^[3]
SMILE	2025	ESA/CAS	Highly elliptical orbit	Planned		Vega-C
MUSE	2027	NASA		Planned	^[4]
SOLAR-C	2028	JAXA		Planned	^[5]
HelioSwarm	2028	NASA		Planned	nine spacecraft^[4]
Vigil	2031	ESA	Earth-Sun L5 and L1	Planned	2 spacecraft
Galileo Solar Space Telescope		INPE		Proposed

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Related Research Articles

The Explorers program is a NASA exploration program that provides flight opportunities for physics, geophysics, heliophysics, and astrophysics investigations from space. Launched in 1958, Explorer 1 was the first spacecraft of the United States to achieve orbit. Over 90 space missions have been launched since. Starting with Explorer 6, it has been operated by NASA, with regular collaboration with a variety of other institutions, including many international partners.

The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two interstellar probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment to explore the two gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and potentially also the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune - to fly near them while collecting data for transmission back to Earth. After Voyager 1 successfully completed its flyby of Saturn and its moon Titan, it was decided to send Voyager 2 on flybys of Uranus and Neptune.

Solar physics is the branch of astrophysics that specializes in the study of the Sun. It intersects with many disciplines of pure physics and astrophysics.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which has been observing the Sun since 2010. Launched on 11 February 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program.

Interstellar Boundary Explorer is a NASA satellite in Earth orbit that uses energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) to image the interaction region between the Solar System and interstellar space. The mission is part of NASA's Small Explorer program and was launched with a Pegasus-XL launch vehicle on 19 October 2008.

Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission began in February 2007 as a constellation of five NASA satellites to study energy releases from Earth's magnetosphere known as substorms, magnetic phenomena that intensify auroras near Earth's poles. The name of the mission is an acronym alluding to the Titan Themis.

Heliophysics is the physics of the Sun and its connection with the Solar System. NASA defines heliophysics as "(1) the comprehensive new term for the science of the Sun - Solar System Connection, (2) the exploration, discovery, and understanding of Earth's space environment, and (3) the system science that unites all of the linked phenomena in the region of the cosmos influenced by a star like our Sun."

Living With a Star (LWS) is a NASA scientific program to study those aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS is a crosscutting initiative with goals and objectives relevant to NASA's Exploration Initiative, as well as to NASA's Strategic Enterprises. The program is managed by the Heliophysics Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

The Parker Solar Probe is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 with the mission of making observations of the outer corona of the Sun. It will approach to within 9.86 solar radii from the center of the Sun, and by 2025 will travel, at closest approach, as fast as 690,000 km/h (430,000 mph) or 191 km/s, which is 0.064% the speed of light. It is the fastest object ever built.

Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) was a satellite designed to investigate changes in the ionosphere of Earth, the dynamic region high in the atmosphere where terrestrial weather from below meets space weather from above. ICON studies the interaction between Earth's weather systems and space weather driven by the Sun, and how this interaction drives turbulence in the upper atmosphere. It is hoped that a better understanding of this dynamic will mitigate its effects on communications, GPS signals, and technology in general. It is part of NASA's Explorer program and is operated by University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory. In July of 2024, the mission was declared lost after a loss of contact.

The Heliophysics Science Division of the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA) conducts research on the Sun, its extended Solar System environment, and interactions of Earth, other planets, small bodies, and interstellar gas with the heliosphere. Division research also encompasses geospace—Earth's uppermost atmosphere, the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere—and the changing environmental conditions throughout the coupled heliosphere.

The Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe(IMAP) is a heliophysics mission that will simultaneously investigate two important and coupled science topics in the heliosphere: the acceleration of energetic particles and interaction of the solar wind with the local interstellar medium. These science topics are coupled because particles accelerated in the inner heliosphere play crucial roles in the outer heliospheric interaction. In 2018, NASA selected a team led by David J. McComas of Princeton University to implement the mission, which is currently scheduled to launch on 29 April 2025. IMAP will be a Sun-tracking spin-stabilized satellite in orbit about the Sun–Earth L1 Lagrange point with a science payload of ten instruments. IMAP will also continuously broadcast real-time in-situ data that can be used for space weather prediction.

NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program (STP) is a series of missions focused on studying the Sun-Earth system. It is part of NASA's Heliophysics Science Division within the Science Mission Directorate.

Nicola Justine Fox is the Associate Administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Appointed to the position in February 2023, she is therefore NASA's head of science. She previously served as the Director of NASA's Heliophysics Science Division of the Goddard Space Flight Center and in the Applied Physics Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University. Fox was the lead scientist for the Parker Solar Probe, and served as the Science and Operations Coordinator for the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics Science Initiative.

Solar Cruiser was a planned NASA spacecraft that would have studied the Sun while propelled by a solar sail. The mission would have supported NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probes program by studying how interplanetary space changes in response to the constant outpouring of energy and particles from the Sun and how it interacts with planetary atmospheres. It was expected to launch as a rideshare payload alongside IMAP in February 2025. However, the spacecraft was not selected for further development and project closeout efforts concluded in 2023.

Science-Enabling Technologies for Heliophysics (SETH) is a proposed space mission by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to launch a small satellite that would demonstrate new technologies to detect solar energetic particles, and demonstrate an optical communication system based on laser pulses.

The Solar and Space Physics Decadal Survey is a publication of the National Research Council produced for NASA, as well as other US government agencies such as NOAA and the National Science Foundation. It is produced with the purpose of identifying a recommended scientific strategy in the field of heliophysics for the following decade. Agencies such as NASA utilize the decadal survey in order to prioritize funding for specific missions or scientific research projects.

Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) is a planned NASA heliophysics mission, that will study the Sun and space weather near Earth. It will consist of three CubeSats that will study the auroral electrojets, "by exploring a phenomenon called Zeeman splitting, which is the splitting of a molecule’s light spectrum when placed near a magnetic field". EZIE is expected to be launched in 2025.

References

↑ Heliophysics Research - NASA Archived 2016-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
↑ "SunRISE - NASA Science". science.nasa.gov. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
↑ "NASA's EZIE Mission Set for 2025 Launch – EZIE". blogs.nasa.gov. 10 September 2024. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
1 2 "New Sun Missions to Help NASA Better Understand Earth-Sun Environment - NASA". NASA. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
↑ Shimizu, Toshifumi (1 March 2024). "SOLAR-C Project Team launched in JAXA". SOLAR-C. Retrieved 3 March 2024.

External links

NASA - Heliophysics missions

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[1] Heliophysics Research - NASA Archived 2016-08-28 at the Wayback Machine

[2] "SunRISE - NASA Science". science.nasa.gov. Retrieved 31 October 2024.

[3] "NASA's EZIE Mission Set for 2025 Launch – EZIE". blogs.nasa.gov. 10 September 2024. Retrieved 21 October 2024.

[nasa_new-4] 1 2 "New Sun Missions to Help NASA Better Understand Earth-Sun Environment - NASA". NASA. Retrieved 31 October 2024.

[5] Shimizu, Toshifumi (1 March 2024). "SOLAR-C Project Team launched in JAXA". SOLAR-C. Retrieved 3 March 2024.

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v t e Solar space missions
List of heliophysics missions - List of solar telescopes
Current	ACE (since 1997) Aditya-L1 (since 2023) ASO-S (since 2022) CHASE (Xihe) (since 2021) DSCOVR (since 2015) Hinode (Solar-B) (since 2006) IRIS (since 2013) Parker Solar Probe (since 2018) Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (since 1995) Solar Dynamics Observatory (since 2010) Solar Orbiter (since 2020) STEREO (since 2006) Wind (since 1994)
Past	Apollo Telescope Mount CORONAS-I CORONAS-F CORONAS-Photon EURECA ESRO 2B Genesis GOES 13 Helios Hinotori (Astro-A) IMP-8 ISEE-1 ISEE-2 ICE / ISEE-3 MinXSS1 MinXSS2 Orbiting Solar Observatory OSO 1 OSO 2/OSO B OSO 3 OSO 4 OSO 5 OSO 6 OSO 7 OSO 8 Solwind PICARD Pioneer 5 Pioneer 6, 7, 8 and 9 PROBA-2 Prognoz programme RHESSI SOLAR SolarMax Spartan 201 Taiyo (SRATS) TRACE Ulysses Yohkoh (Solar-A)
Planned	PROBA-3 (2024) Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (2025) PUNCH (2025) SWFO-L1 (2025) TRACERS (2025) SOLAR-C (2028) HelioSwarm (2028) Vigil (2031)
Proposed	ADAHELI SETH Sundiver GSST
Cancelled	AOSO Pioneer H OSO J OSO K Solar Cruiser Solar Sentinels
Lost	Pioneer E OSO C
Sun-Earth	SORCE SXI ACRIMSAT
Category

v t e Space missions by destination
Planets	Mercury Venus Mars Outer planets Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune
Others	The Sun The Moon lunar probes Minor planets Comets
Orbiters	Extraterrestrial orbiters Mars orbiters Objects in heliocentric orbit