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[a] Neptune's south pole is slightly above the bottom of the image. Neptune has been directly explored by one space probe, Voyager 2, in 1989. As of 2024, there are no confirmed future missions to visit the Neptunian system, although a tentative Chinese mission has been planned for launch in 2024. [1]
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. One spacecraft, Voyager 2, also visited Uranus and Neptune.
In January 2006, the New Horizons spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41 on a mission to visit Pluto. To accelerate toward its target, the spacecraft used an Earth-and-solar escape trajectory , achieving a speed of approximately 16.26 km/s (10.10 mi/s; 58,500 km/h; 36,400 mph), and later performed a gravity assist ...
Voyager 2 is the only space probe to have visited the Neptune system, completing a flyby on August 25, 1989. An orbiter to Neptune was considered as part of the aborted Mariner Mark II program in the 1990s, and several mission concepts for an orbiter were developed in the 2000s, including a concept by the California Institute of Technology [4] and a version by the University of Idaho and ...
Space probe broke orbit on 5 September 2012 and headed to Ceres; first "big four" asteroid visited by a spacecraft, largest asteroid visited by a spacecraft at the time. 4179 Toutatis: 2.45: 1934 Chang'e 2: 2012 3.2 0.70 Flyby; [1] closest asteroid flyby, first asteroid visited by a Chinese probe. 1 Ceres: 939.4 1801 Dawn: 2015–2018: 35 0.07
Neptune was visited by Voyager 2, which flew by the planet on 25 August 1989; Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to have visited it. [ 22 ] [ 23 ] Like the gas giants ( Jupiter and Saturn ), Neptune's atmosphere is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium , along with traces of hydrocarbons and possibly nitrogen , but contains a higher ...
It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and enabled further encounters with the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. It remains the only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giant planets, and was the third of five spacecraft to achieve Solar escape velocity, which allowed it to leave the Solar System.
This is a list of all spacecraft landings on other planets and bodies in the Solar System, including soft landings and both intended and unintended hard impacts. The list includes orbiters that were intentionally crashed, but not orbiters which later crashed in an unplanned manner due to orbital decay. Colour key: