Missions

The latest news from the spacecraft helping us explore the cosmos, and the historical missions that paved the way.

Prof Andrew Coates pictured with the ExoMars 2020 PanCam instrument. Credit: ESA

Interview How the ExoMars 2020 rover will search for signs of life on the Red Planet

An artist's impression of NASA's Mars 2020 rover exploring Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The big space missions to look out for in 2020

Comet 67P captured by Rosetta's NAVCAM on 21 May 2015. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Tale of a comet: looking back on the Rosetta mission at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

An artist's impression of ESA's Solar Orbiter. Credit: ESA

Radio Astronomy Podcast 2020 space missions and the latest from the Giant Magellan Telescope

An artist's concept showing ARIEL in orbit. Credit: ESA/STFC RAL Space/UCL/Europlanet-Science Office

NASA’s CASE instrument added to ESA’s ARIEL exoplanet mission

An artist's impression of ESA's Solar Orbiter spacecraft. Copyright: ESA/ATG medialab

Interview How ESA's Solar orbiter will study the surface of the Sun

Pete Conrad next to the Surveyor 3 lander, with the lunar module on the crater rim just 182m away. Credit: NASA

Apollo 12: the story of the second manned mission to the Moon

NASA’s VIPER rover will search for water ice at the Moon’s south pole. Credit: NASA Ames/Daniel Rutter

NASA’s VIPER rover to seek water ice at Moon’s south pole

Spacesuit engineer Amy Ross (left) and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (second from left) watch spacesuit engineer Kristine Davis wearing a prototype of NASA’s Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU), 15 October 2019 at NASA headquarters in Washington. Dustin Gohmert (right), Orion Crew Survival Systems Project Manager, sports the Orion Crew Survival System suit, Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky).

A look at the NASA Artemis, SpaceX Crew Dragon and Virgin Galactic spacesuits

Alexei Leonov pictured during the Voskhod 2 mission that saw him become the first person to perform a spacewalk. Credit: Getty Images / SVF2 / Contributor

Alexei Leonov, the first person to spacewalk, dies aged 85

An artist's impression of the Galileo spacecraft at Jupiter. Credit: NASA

The scientific achievements of NASA’s Galileo mission at Jupiter

Former NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan. Credit: Debbie Rowe

Interview Astronaut Kathy Sullivan on Hubble, Space Shuttle and being the first US woman to spacewalk

The Dream Chaser pictured following a 60mph tow test at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, California. Credit: Ken Ulbrich

Whatever happened to spaceplanes?

Space shuttle Columbia launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, carrying the first United States Microgravity Laboratory, June 25, 1992. Credit: NASA

A history of NASA’s Space Shuttle

The Northern Lights blaze a path through a valley leading away from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Credit: REUTERS / Lucas Jackson

How Cluster is uncovering the secrets of the aurora