List of heliophysics missions

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
CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment (CURIE)	9 July 2024	NASA	low Earth	Operational	2 spacecraft	Ariane 6
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	Success	Contact lost November 2022	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	Atlas Agena, Thor 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 (located on USA-184 and USA-200)	28 June 2006	NASA	highly elliptical geocentric (Molniya)	Success	2 hosted payloads, decommissioned 2020	Delta IV-M+(4,2), Atlas V 411
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
PROBA-3	5 December 2024	ESA	Highly elliptical orbit	Success	2 spacecraft	PSLV-XL

Proposed missions

Spacecraft	Launch date	Operator	Orbit	Outcome	Remarks	Carrier rocket
SunRISE	2024[ needs update ]	NASA	supersynchronous geosynchronous Earth orbit	Planned	6 CubeSats [2]
PUNCH	6 March 2025	NASA	Sun-synchronous orbit	Planned	4 microsatellites	Falcon 9
TRACERS	April 2025	NASA		Planned	2 orbiters	Falcon 9
Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe	2025	NASA	L1 Lagrange point	Planned	[3]
EZIE	2025	NASA		Planned	[4]
SMILE	2025	ESA/CAS	Highly elliptical orbit	Planned		Vega-C
MUSE	2027	NASA		Planned	[5]
SOLAR-C	2028	JAXA		Planned	[6]
HelioSwarm	2028	NASA		Planned	nine spacecraft [5]
Solar Polar Orbit Observatory	2029	CNSA	heliocentric polar orbiter	Planned
Vigil	2031	ESA	Earth-Sun L5 and L1	Planned	2 spacecraft
Galileo Solar Space Telescope		INPE		Proposed

Graphic

NASA Heliophysics Division fleet as of July 2024

See also

• List of solar telescopes

References

1. Heliophysics Research - NASA Archived 2016-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
2. "SunRISE - NASA Science". science.nasa.gov. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
3. Foust, Jeff (22 December 2024). "NASA delays launch of heliophysics missions". SpaceNews . Retrieved 23 December 2024.
4. "NASA's EZIE Mission Set for 2025 Launch – EZIE". blogs.nasa.gov. 10 September 2024. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
5. "New Sun Missions to Help NASA Better Understand Earth-Sun Environment - NASA". NASA. Retrieved 31 October 2024.
6. Shimizu, Toshifumi (1 March 2024). "SOLAR-C Project Team launched in JAXA". SOLAR-C. Retrieved 3 March 2024.

External links

• NASA - Heliophysics missions