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Space probes and missions

Everything we know about distant planets and moons was found out by space probes. Here are the most important missions with their milestones, from Pioneer and Voyager to the probes that are on their way today.

Voyager 1Voyager 1 is the most distant object ever built by humans.Voyager 2Voyager 2 is the only probe ever to have visited Uranus and Neptune.New HorizonsAt launch, New Horizons was the fastest spacecraft ever launched: after only 9 hours it crossed the Moon's …Cassini-HuygensCassini orbited Saturn for 13 years and sent more than 450,000 images back to Earth.Apollo 11On 20 July 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the Moon – while …International Space Station (ISS)The ISS circles Earth every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 400 km – the crew sees 16 sunrises and sunsets …James Webb Space TelescopeIts main mirror is 6.5 m across and made up of 18 gold-coated hexagons – so large that it had to be folded up …JunoJuno is the first probe to manage on solar power alone so far out at Jupiter – with three huge solar panels.Parker Solar ProbeParker gets closer to the Sun than any spacecraft before it: to within 6.1 million km – right inside the …RosettaRosetta was the first probe to orbit a comet – and its lander Philae was the first craft to land on one.GalileoGalileo was the first probe to orbit a planet of the outer region – Jupiter, for eight years.Pioneer 10In 1973 Pioneer 10 was the first probe to reach Jupiter – and the first to cross the Asteroid Belt.Pioneer 11In 1979 Pioneer 11 was the first probe to reach Saturn – flying right through the plane of the rings as it …LucyLucy is the first probe to visit Jupiter's Trojans – the two swarms of asteroids ahead of and behind Jupiter.Europa ClipperEuropa Clipper is the largest planetary probe NASA has ever built – more than 30 m wide with its solar panels …JUICEJUICE is the Jupiter mission of the European Space Agency ESA – the name stands for “JUpiter ICy moons …BepiColomboBepiColombo is a joint mission by Europe (ESA) and Japan (JAXA) to Mercury – it is really two probes stacked …Artemis IIn 2022 Artemis I was the uncrewed test flight of NASA's new Moon rocket SLS with the Orion spacecraft – the …

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