Flight Missions Information Astronomy and Astrophysics at the NSSDC
	NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA

This page lists flight missions with astronomy or astrophysics contributing significantly to the science objectives. Missions with a space/solar physics or planetary astronomy focus are generally not included on this page.

Alternatively, see the Flight Missions Graphical Interface page to view astrophysics missions by wavelength region.

Clicking on a mission name will take you to the NSSDC Master Catalog (NMC) entry and NSSDC data archive information. Clicking on a blue or green colored bar in the "Archive" column will take you to the active data archive or other mission information. A blue bar indicates a past or current mission. A green bar indicates a mission in development.

If you don't see a mission listed here, you may wish to query the NSSDC Master Catalog.

Acronyms of sponsoring agencies/countries are defined at the bottom of this page.

| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

A

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
AGILE	past/current	ASI	Gamma-ray detection of AGN flaring activity, gamma-ray bursts, pulsars, new transients, solar flares, and cosmic ray interactions in the Galaxy
Alexis	past/current	DOE	Ultrasoft X-ray sky survey and observations; extreme UV observations
ANS	past/current	NIVR/NASA	X-ray and ultraviolet observations of celestial objects
Ariel 5	past/current	UK/NASA	X-ray sky monitoring
Ariel 6	past/current	UK/NASA	X-ray observations
ASCA	past/current	ISAS/NASA	X-ray spectroscopy of astrophysical plasmas with emphasis on the iron K band, and imaging of extended sources
ASTP-Apollo	past/current	NASA	Extreme-Ultraviolet astronomy among other-discipline experiments
Astro 1	past/current	NASA	Ultraviolet and X-ray observations of selected targets
Astro 2	past/current	NASA	Ultraviolet observations of selected targets
Astro-E2 (Suzaku)	past/current	NASA/ISAS	High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of black holes, and supernovae, and other extended objects

B

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
Beppo-SAX	past/current	ASI/NIVR	X-ray spectroscopy and time variability studies of celestial sources

C

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
CGRO	past/current	NASA	Gamma-ray studies of high-energy sources and processes including gamma-ray bursts and blazars; Second of NASA's Great Observatories
Chandra	past/current	NASA	X-ray imaging and spectroscopy of high energy regions in the universe; Third of NASA's Great Observatories
CHIPS	past/current	NASA	Extreme ultraviolet all-sky spectroscopy of the diffuse background
COBE	past/current	NASA	Infrared and microwave measurements of the cosmic infrared background and the cosmic microwave background
Copernicus (OAO 3)	past/current	NASA	Ultraviolet survey mission
Cos-B	past/current	ESA	Gamma-ray study of extraterrestrial sources

D

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
DXS	past/current	NASA	X-ray spectra of the diffuse soft X-ray background radiation in the Milky Way Galaxy

E

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
Einstein (HEAO 2)	past/current	NASA	X-ray imaging and spectrographic studies of targeted sources and studies of the diffuse X-ray background
Explorer 11	past/current	NASA	Gamma-ray observations of celestial sources
EUVE	past/current	NASA	Extreme ultraviolet full-sky survey and spectroscopic observations of selected targets
EXOSAT	past/current	ESA	X-ray measurements of the position, structural features, and spectral and temporal characteristics of cosmic sources

F

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
FIRST (Herschel)	in development	ESA	Far-infrared and sub-mm photometry and spectroscopy probing the formation of stars and galaxies
FUSE	past/current	NASA	Far-UV study of the cosmic abundance of deuterium, and the hot gas content of our galaxy

G

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
GALEX	past/current	NASA	UV mission to explore the origin and evolution of galaxies and the origins of stars and heavy elements
Gamma	past/current	IKI/CESR	X-ray and gamma-ray observations
Ginga	past/current	ISAS	X-ray time variability study of active galaxies (e.g., Seyfert galaxies, BL Lac objects, and quasars)
Granat	past/current	IKI/CESR	X-ray and gamma-ray study of emissions from galactic and extra-galactic sources

H

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
Hakucho	past/current	ISAS	X-ray systematic survey of short-lived X-ray phenomena and observe selected sources
HALCA	past/current	ISAS	Radio imaging of astronomical sources in coordination with ground-based radio observatories; Space Very Long Baseline Interferometry mission
HEAO 1	past/current	NASA	X-ray and low-energy gamma ray source survey
HEAO 2 (Einstein)	past/current	NASA	X-ray imaging and spectrographic studies of targeted sources and studies of the diffuse X-ray background
HEAO 3	past/current	NASA	Gamma-ray and cosmic ray source survey
Herschel (FIRST)	in development	ESA	Far-infrared and sub-mm photometry and spectroscopy probing the formation of stars and galaxies
HETE 2	past/current	NASA	X-ray sky survey and multiwavelength observations of gamma-ray bursts
Hipparcos	past/current	ESA	Optically accurate measurements of trigonometric parallaxes, proper motions, and positions of selected stars
HST	past/current	NASA/ESA	Visible, near-ultraviolet, and near-infrared observations of the cosmos and planetary objects; First of NASA's Great Observatories

I

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
INTEGRAL	past/current	ESA	Gamma-ray spectroscopy, imaging, and accurate positioning of cosmic gamma-ray sources
IRAS	past/current	NASA/SERC/NIVR	Infrared full-sky survey
IRTS	past/current	ISAS	Infrared astronomy observations emphasizing cosmology, interstellar matter, late type stars and interplanetary dust
ISO	past/current	ESA	Infrared, detailed study of selected galactic and extragalactic sources
IUE	past/current	NASA/ESA/SERC	Ultraviolet observations of selected targets

J

K

L

M

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
MAP (WMAP)	past/current	NASA	Microwave measurement of the temperature of the microwave cosmic background radiation
MSAM/TopHat	past/current	NASA	Infrared and microwave study of the cosmic microwave background radiation
MSX	past/current	BMDO	Infrared mapping of the Galactic Plane and the Large Magellanic Cloud

N

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
NVSS	past/current	NRAO	Radio continuum survey; ground-based

O

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
OAO 2	past/current	NASA	Ultraviolet stellar and nebular photometry/td>
OAO 3 (Copernicus)	past/current	NASA	Ultraviolet survey mission
ORFEUS	past/current	DARA/NASA	Ultraviolet spectroscopic observations
ORFEUS-SPAS II	past/current	DARA/NASA	Ultraviolet spectroscopic observations
OSO 7	past/current	NASA	X-ray observations of cosmic sources; primarily a solar observatory
OSO 8	past/current	NASA	X-ray observations of celestial sources; primarily a solar observatory

P

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
Planck	in development	ESA	Microwave mapping of the structure of the cosmic microwave background

Q

R

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
RAE-A	past/current	NASA	Radio obervations of celestial sources
RAE-B	past/current	NASA	Radio obervations of celestial sources
ROSAT	past/current	NASA/BMBF/SERC	X-ray survey mission; x-ray imaging and spectroscopy of selected targets
RXTE (XTE)	past/current	NASA	X-ray study of temporal and broad-band spectral phenomena associated with compact objects

S

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
SAS-A (Uhuru)	past/current	NASA	X-ray sky survey; studies of the structure of extended sources
SAS-B	past/current	NASA	Gamma-ray observations of galactic and extragalactic sources
SAS-C	past/current	NASA	X-ray observations of galactic and extragalactic sources
Spitzer	past/current	NASA	Infrared search for brown dwarfs and protoplanets, study ultraluminous galaxies, and conduct deep surveys; Fourth of NASA's Great Observatories
Skylab	past/current	NASA	Ultraviolet stellar astronomy; primarily a solar physics mission
SOFIA	in development	NASA/DLR	Infrared observations of the universe from an airborne observatory
Suzaku (Astro-E2)	past/current	NASA/ISAS	High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of black holes, and supernovae, and other extended objects
SWAS	past/current	NASA	Submillimeter study of interstellar clouds and how stars and planets form
Swift	past/current	NASA	X-ray study of the afterglow of gamma-ray bursts

T

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
TD 1A	past/current	ESA	UV, X-ray and gamma-ray measurements
Tenma	past/current	ISAS	X-ray all-sky survey for X-ray bursts and transients
Tophat/MSAM	past/current	NASA	Infrared and microwave study of the cosmic microwave background radiation
2 MASS	past/current	NSF/NASA	Near-infrared large-area sky survey; ground-based

U

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
Uhuru (SAS-A)	past/current	NASA	X-ray sky survey; studies of the structure of extended sources

V

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
Vela 5B	past/current	USAF	Gamma-ray and x-ray study of the celestial sphere

W

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
WMAP (MAP)	past/current	NASA	Microwave measurement of the temperature of the microwave cosmic background radiation

X

Mission Name/ link to NMC entry	Active Archive/ Information link	Sponsorship	Purpose
XMM-Newton	past/current	ESA	X-ray investigation of emission characteristics of cosmic sources
XTE (RXTE)	past/current	NASA	X-ray study of temporal and broad-band spectral phenomena associated with compact objects

Y

Z

If you don't see a mission listed here, you may wish to query the NSSDC Master Catalog.

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Last updated: 18 March 2008