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The timeline of discovery of Solar System planets and their natural satellites charts the progress of the discovery of new bodies over history. Each object is listed in chronological order of its discovery (multiple dates occur when the moments of imaging, observation, and publication differ), identified through its various designations (including temporary and permanent schemes), and the ...
– Unsuccessful soft landing, intentional hard landing, or mission still in progress. – Successful soft landing with intelligible data return. The tannish hue indicates extraterrestrial soil. – Successful soft landing, intelligible data return, and sample return to Earth. The greenish hue indicates terrestrial return.
The great majority of Earth-orbiting satellites. Space probes leaving Earth orbit that are not concerned with Solar System exploration (such as space telescopes targeted at distant galaxies, cosmic background radiation observatories, and so on). Probes that failed at launch.
Montage of planets and some moons that the two Voyager spacecraft have visited and studied. It is the only program that visited all four outer planets. A total of nine spacecraft have been launched on missions that involve visits to the outer planets; all nine missions involve encounters with Jupiter, with four spacecraft also visiting Saturn.
The first artificial object sent into space was the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1, launched on 4 October 1957, which successfully orbited Earth until 4 January the following year. [65] The American probe Explorer 6, launched in 1959, was the first satellite to image Earth from space.
1959 – Explorer 6 sends the first image of the entire Earth from space. [178] 1959 – Luna 3 sends the first images of another celestial body, the Moon, from space, including its unseen far side. [179] 1962 – Mariner 2 Venus flyby performs the first closeup observations of another planet. [180]
This is a list of space probes that have left Earth orbit (or were launched with that intention but failed), organized by their planned destination. It includes planetary probes, solar probes, and probes to asteroids and comets, but excludes lunar missions, which are listed separately at List of lunar probes and List of Apollo missions.
First time a spacecraft coming from deep space uses the Earth for a gravity-assist manoeuvre. ESA Giotto [42] 21 October 1991: First asteroid flyby (951 Gaspra closest approach 1,600 km). USA (NASA) Galileo: 1992 First confirmed observation of an exoplanet. Canada Poland: Aleksander Wolszczan & Dale Frail: 8 February 1992: First polar orbit ...