Chronology of Lunar and Planetary Exploration

This chronology gives a list of a known (successful and unsuccessful) lunar and planetary missions including a few historical missions which were instrumental in the development and evolution of space exploration. The timeline can be viewed in its entirety (about 45 K in size):

| 1957 - Future
|

or in smaller 'bite-size' chunks (~ 12 K each):

| 1957 - 1964
| 1965 - 1969
| 1970 - 1979
| 1980 - Present
| Future Missions
|

On the timeline, each mission is listed with the launch date, country of origin and primary objective. Choosing a mission leads to a more detailed description of the mission and spacecraft, and links to information on the experiments carried by the mission, data returned, launch/orbital history, telecommunications and other pertinent pages.

If you don't see a mission listed on these pages, you may wish to query the complete NSSDC Master Catalog by typing in a name in the space below.

Spacecraft Name:

* Return to the Planetary Home Page

Questions and comments about this page should be addressed to:
Dr. David R. Williams, dwilliam@nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov, (301) 286-1258
NSSDC, Mail Code 633, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771
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NASA Official: J. H. King, king@nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov
Last Updated: 19 June 1997, DRW