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EchoNaut

An asteroid, a dwarf planet and the edge of the solar system

Beyond the Moon and Mars

Some NASA spacecraft ended their journeys far, far away. One rests on an asteroid, one circles a dwarf planet, one drifts around the Sun, and two are still flying out of our solar system. Come and meet them!

4 missions to discover, oldest first

  1. Status: Leaving the solar system1972

    Pioneer 10 and 11

    Leaving the solar system

    Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt and fly past Jupiter, in December 1973. Pioneer 11 flew past Jupiter in December 1974 and became the first spacecraft to fly by Saturn, in September 1979.

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  2. Status: Not working any more2000

    NEAR Shoemaker

    On the surface of asteroid 433 Eros

    In February 2000 it became the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid. A year later, on 12 February 2001, it touched down gently on Eros at about 6 km/h, even though it was never designed to land.

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  3. Status: Not working any more2009

    Kepler Space Telescope

    In orbit around the Sun, trailing behind Earth

    Kepler was NASA's first planet-hunting mission. When a second of its pointing wheels failed in May 2013, the team used the pressure of sunlight to keep it steady and gave it a new mission, K2, which surveyed more than 500,000 stars.

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  4. Status: Not working any more2011

    Dawn

    In orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres

    Dawn used ion engines to fly to Vesta, where it went into orbit in July 2011. Later it flew on to Ceres and went into orbit there on 6 March 2015, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit two worlds beyond Earth.

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