Target: Interstellar Space / Oort Cloud · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~164.25 AU · Launched: 1977-09-05

Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object in history. Launched in 1977, it completed historic flybys of Jupiter and Saturn before crossing the heliopause into interstellar space on August 25, 2012. It continues to return in-situ measurements of the pristine interstellar plasma medium and galactic cosmic rays powered by its Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG).

Target: Interstellar Space (Southern Sky) · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~137.42 AU · Launched: 1977-08-20

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have conducted in-situ exploration of all four giant outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. On November 5, 2018, it crossed the heliopause into interstellar space, carrying a still-functioning Plasma Science instrument that directly samples interstellar wind density and temperature.

Target: Outer Kuiper Belt & Interstellar Medium · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~58.85 AU · Launched: 2006-01-19

New Horizons conducted the first-ever close flyby of Pluto and its moons in July 2015, revealing nitrogen glaciers, towering water-ice mountains, and an active cryosphere. In 2019, it conducted the most distant planetary flyby in history at contact-binary planetesimal Arrokoth. It is currently cruising through the deep Kuiper Belt conducting heliophysics, dust, and astrophysics sky-background observations.

Target: Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange Halo Orbit · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~0.01 AU · Launched: 2021-12-25

JWST is humanity’s premier infrared space observatory. Featuring a 6.5-meter gold-coated beryllium primary mirror and a 5-layer tennis-court-sized sunshield, Webb operates at cryogenic temperatures (~40 K) in an orbit around Sun-Earth L2. Its instruments resolve the earliest stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang, map exoplanet transmission spectra, and peer through dense stellar nurseries.

Target: Jupiter System (Europa Reconnaissance) · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~2.45 AU · Launched: 2024-10-14

Europa Clipper is the largest planetary exploration spacecraft ever flown by NASA. Its mission is to investigate whether Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa could harbor conditions suitable for life in its vast subsurface saltwater ocean. Traveling on an elliptical transfer with Mars and Earth flybys, Clipper will enter Jupiter orbit in 2030 and perform nearly 50 close, low-altitude flybys of Europa.

Target: Jupiter, Ganymede, Callisto, Europa · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~2.15 AU · Launched: 2023-04-14

ESA's Juice mission is dedicated to exploring Jupiter’s giant icy moons—Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa—as planetary habitats and potential ocean worlds. In late 2034, Juice will make history by entering permanent orbit around Ganymede, becoming the first spacecraft ever to orbit a moon other than our own.

Target: Inner Solar Corona (Perihelion) · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~0.35 AU · Launched: 2018-08-12

Parker Solar Probe is the fastest human-made object in history, repeatedly diving directly through the Sun's superheated corona at speeds exceeding 635,000 km/h (395,000 mph). Shielded by an 11.4 cm carbon-composite heat shield that endures temperatures of 1,400°C, Parker has solved the mystery of solar magnetic switchbacks and discovered the dust-free zone near the Sun.

Target: Mercury Orbital Insertion · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~0.58 AU · Launched: 2018-10-20

BepiColombo is a dual-spacecraft joint European-Japanese mission to Mercury, the least explored terrestrial planet. Carrying the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO, ESA) and Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (Mio, JAXA), the mission will investigate Mercury's iron-rich core, polar water ice craters, tenuous exosphere, and intense magnetic dynamo.

Target: Jupiter Polar Orbit & Galilean Moons · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~5.20 AU · Launched: 2011-08-05

Juno is a solar-powered spacecraft orbiting Jupiter's poles to map its deep atmospheric dynamics, core gravity field, and massive magnetosphere. Now in its extended mission, Juno is executing close flybys of the Galilean satellites—including high-resolution flybys of volcanic Io and fractured Europa—unveiling tidal volcanism and magnetic induction.

Target: Asteroid (99942) Apophis Rendezvous · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~1.15 AU · Launched: 2016-09-08

After successfully sampling asteroid Bennu and releasing its sample return capsule back to Earth in September 2023, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer). It is now en route to rendezvous with potentially hazardous asteroid (99942) Apophis immediately following its historic ultra-close 32,000 km Earth flyby on April 13, 2029.

Target: Jupiter Trojan Asteroid Swarms · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~2.85 AU · Launched: 2021-10-16

Lucy is the first mission to explore Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids—primitive fossils of planet formation trapped in Jupiter's leading (L4) and trailing (L5) Lagrange points. Over its 12-year tour, Lucy will visit an unprecedented 10 asteroids, including the contact binary Patroclus-Menoetius.

Target: Metallic Asteroid (16 Psyche) · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~2.60 AU · Launched: 2023-10-13

Psyche is traveling to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting between Mars and Jupiter that may be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planetary building block (planetesimal). Powered by high-efficiency solar electric propulsion, Psyche will determine whether the asteroid is an exposed core, an unmelted primordial body, or a remnant of extreme impacts.

Target: High-Inclination Solar Polar Orbit · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~0.72 AU · Launched: 2020-02-10

Solar Orbiter is an international collaboration between ESA and NASA designed to capture the first-ever close-up images of the Sun’s polar regions. By using repeated Venus gravity assists to crank its orbital inclination above 30 degrees, Solar Orbiter investigates the solar dynamo, polar magnetic reversals, and the origins of the solar wind.

Target: Sun-Earth L2 Halo Orbit · Base Heliocentric Distance: ~0.01 AU · Launched: 2023-07-01

Euclid is ESA’s space telescope designed to map the geometry of the dark Universe. Over six years, Euclid is imaging billions of galaxies across more than a third of the sky, measuring gravitational lensing distortions and baryon acoustic oscillations to understand the acceleration of cosmic expansion driven by dark energy.