Spacecraft out there

Which spacecraft are still working out there, which have finished, and where does each one end up? The table lists notable spacecraft that visited another world, with whether each is still active and where it is now. Click a name to see its mission page and videos.

42notable missions in the list
12still active
30retired
246space probes with a launch date in Wikidata

42 spacecraft

					Where it is now
Sputnik 1	USSR	1957	Earth	Retired	Burned up in the atmosphere on 4 January 1958 Source
Explorer 1	NASA	1958	Earth	Retired	Burned up in the atmosphere on 31 March 1970 Source
Vanguard 1	US Navy	1958	Earth	Retired	Still in Earth orbit; the oldest satellite still up there Source
Luna 1	USSR	1959	Moon	Retired	In orbit around the Sun Source
Luna 2	USSR	1959	Moon	Retired	Crashed on the Moon, 13 September 1959 Source
Luna 9	USSR	1966	Moon	Retired	On the Moon (Oceanus Procellarum); first soft landing, 3 February 1966 Source
Apollo 8	NASA	1968	Moon	Retired	Mission complete (December 1968) Source
Apollo 11	NASA	1969	Moon	Retired	Mission complete (July 1969); lunar module descent stage remains at Tranquility Base Source
Chang'e 6	CNSA	2024	Moon	Retired	Lander on the Moon's far side; samples returned June 2024 Source
Chandrayaan-3	ISRO	2023	Moon	Retired	Lander and rover on the Moon near the south pole, silent since September 2023 Source
Blue Ghost Mission 1	Firefly Aerospace	2025	Moon	Retired	On the Moon (Mare Crisium); operated one lunar day in March 2025 Source
Artemis II	NASA	2026	Moon	Retired	Mission complete; crew splashed down in April 2026 Source
Mariner 10	NASA	1973	Venus, Mercury	Retired	In orbit around the Sun Source
MESSENGER	NASA	2004	Mercury	Retired	Crashed into Mercury on 30 April 2015 Source
BepiColombo	ESA / JAXA	2018	Mercury	Active	On the way to Mercury (orbit insertion planned for November 2026) Source
Venera 7	USSR	1970	Venus	Retired	On the surface of Venus (first soft landing on another planet, 15 December 1970) Source
Venera 9	USSR	1975	Venus	Retired	Orbiter in orbit round Venus; lander on the surface, first photos from another planet's surface (1975) Source
Magellan	NASA	1989	Venus	Retired	Burned up in Venus's atmosphere on 13 October 1994 Source
Mariner 4	NASA	1964	Mars	Retired	In orbit around the Sun Source
Mariner 9	NASA	1971	Mars	Retired	Still in orbit round Mars Source
Viking 1	NASA	1975	Mars	Retired	Lander on Mars (Chryse Planitia); orbiter shut down 1980 Source
Mars Express	ESA	2003	Mars	Active	In orbit round Mars since December 2003 Source
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter	NASA	2005	Mars	Active	In orbit round Mars since March 2006 Source
Curiosity	NASA	2011	Mars	Active	On Mars, climbing Mount Sharp in Gale Crater Source
Perseverance	NASA	2020	Mars	Active	On Mars, exploring Jezero Crater Source
Pioneer 10	NASA	1972	Jupiter	Retired	Heading out of the Solar System; last signal January 2003 Source
Pioneer 11	NASA	1973	Jupiter, Saturn	Retired	Heading out of the Solar System; last signal November 1995 Source
Galileo	NASA	1989	Jupiter	Retired	Burned up in Jupiter's atmosphere on 21 September 2003 Source
Voyager 1	NASA	1977	Jupiter, Saturn	Active	In interstellar space; the most distant human-made object Source
Voyager 2	NASA	1977	Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune	Active	In interstellar space; the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune Source
Cassini-Huygens	NASA / ESA / ASI	1997	Saturn, Titan	Retired	Cassini burned up in Saturn's atmosphere on 15 September 2017; Huygens landed on Titan, 14 January 2005 Source
New Horizons	NASA	2006	Pluto, Arrokoth	Active	In the Kuiper Belt, past Pluto (2015) and Arrokoth (2019) Source
Dawn	NASA	2007	Vesta, Ceres	Retired	Still in orbit round Ceres, out of fuel since November 2018 Source
NEAR Shoemaker	NASA	1996	Eros	Retired	On the asteroid Eros since 12 February 2001 Source
Hayabusa	JAXA	2003	Itokawa	Retired	Capsule returned to Earth in June 2010; probe burned up Source
Hayabusa2	JAXA	2014	Ryugu	Active	Cruising to asteroid 1998 KY26 (arrival planned for 2031) Source
OSIRIS-REx	NASA	2016	Bennu	Active	Now OSIRIS-APEX, heading to asteroid Apophis (2029); sample returned September 2023 Source
Giotto	ESA	1985	Halley's Comet	Retired	In orbit around the Sun Source
Rosetta	ESA	2004	Comet 67P	Retired	Landed on comet 67P on 30 September 2016, ending the mission Source
Philae	ESA	2004	Comet 67P	Retired	On comet 67P since 12 November 2014; last contact July 2015 Source
Parker Solar Probe	NASA	2018	Sun	Active	In orbit around the Sun, passing through its outer atmosphere Source
Solar Orbiter	ESA / NASA	2020	Sun	Active	In orbit around the Sun Source

How many were launched each decade

Space probes launched per decadeProbes

Source: Wikidata (CC0), pulled 2026-11-02 Download the data (CSV)

Counts the 246 probes that have a launch date in Wikidata. The real total is higher.

Show the data

Space probes launched per decade
Decade	Space probes launched
1950s	12
1960s	78
1970s	41
1980s	16
1990s	15
2000s	23
2010s	26
2020s	33
2030s	2

Active and retired, by launch decade

Spacecraft in our list: still active or retiredSpacecraft

Active
Retired

Source: Agency mission pages; launch dates from Wikidata (CC0) Download the data (CSV)

Show the data

Spacecraft in our list: still active or retired
Decade	Active	Retired
1950s	0	5
1960s	0	4
1970s	2	7
1980s	0	3
1990s	0	2
2000s	3	5
2010s	5	0
2020s	2	4

Videos

Spacecraft in video

Pick a spacecraft or rocket to see only its videos.

Play video: Voyager 1: How It Proved It Had Reached Interstellar Space

Voyager 1: How It Proved It Had Reached Interstellar Space

Oruvi

Published 2 November 2026Duration 7:46

Watch video

Dates are when each video was first published on YouTube.

How these numbers are counted

The table is a selection of notable missions, kept by hand from the operators’ own pages; each row links its source. Launch dates come from Wikidata, and where Wikidata disagrees with the operator we use the operator’s date (Pioneer 10 is dated 1973 in Wikidata but launched in March 1972). “Active” means the operator still receives data or the spacecraft is on a funded mission, as of the date below. The chart of probes per decade counts every space probe Wikidata records, which is incomplete.

Data as of 2 November 2026. Source: Wikidata (CC0), with status from the operators: NASA, ESA, JAXA

How many were launched each decade

Active and retired, by launch decade

Videos

Spacecraft in video

Crew-12 Leaves the ISS: Dragon Freedom Undocking and Departure

Crew-12 Leaves the ISS: Hatch Closure Aboard Dragon Freedom

Hera at Didymos: Plan for Two CubeSats and a Close Asteroid Look

Crew-12 Leaves the ISS: Dragon Freedom Undocking Step by Step

Crew-12 Hatch Closure: Dragon Freedom Readies to Leave the ISS

Starship Flight 14 Reaches Orbit and Three Falcons Fly in One Day

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 Re-Entry & Splashdown

Crew-12 Return: Dragon Freedom Splashdown Off Los Angeles

Cygnus XL Departs the ISS: Release, Burn and Re-entry Plan

Sophie Adenot Back in Europe After 237 Days on the ISS

CRS-35: Falcon 9 Launches Dragon With Final Two ISS Solar Arrays

CRS-35: Falcon 9 Launches Cargo Dragon With Final IROSA Arrays

Starlink 15-25: Falcon 9 B1088 Launch and Landing at Vandenberg

Crew-12 Crew Look Back on 237 Days Aboard the ISS

SpaceX CRS-35 Dragon Docks at the ISS Harmony Zenith Port

Galileo: How Europe Built Its Own Satellite Navigation System

New Glenn Recovery: Blue Origin’s Plan for Weekly Launches

Roman Space Telescope: Falcon Heavy Launch and Path to L2

ISS iROSA Spacewalks 100 and 101: Final Solar Array Installs

NASA Moon Base Rovers: VIPER, Pegasus and the Crewed Lunar Vehicle

Bandwagon-5: Falcon 9 Rideshare Launch With Starfall Capsule

Neutron Delayed to 2027 After Voids Found in Carbon Dome

Artemis 3 Update: Rocket Progress, Landers and the 2028 Plan

Rocket Lab’s 98th Electron Launch Deploys Three HawkEye 360 Satellites

Deep Space Updates: MMX to Phobos, Crew-12 Return, Neutron Delay

US Spacewalk 100: Installing the Seventh ISS Roll-Out Solar Array

Artemis III: Orion Docks With Blue Moon and Starship in Orbit

Four Satellites That Came Back: LES-1, AO-7, IMAGE and BeeSat 1

Starship Flight 14: First Orbit and 26 Starlink V3 Satellites

Starship Flight 14: How V3 Reached Orbit and Deployed 26 Satellites

Starship Flights 1 to 14: How Build-Fly-Fail-Fix Reached Orbit

Starship’s 33 Raptor Engines: Four Reasons Behind Super Heavy

Apollo 13: The Oxygen Tank Failure and the Lunar Module Lifeboat

Challenger STS-51-L: O-Ring Failure, Cold Launch and Return to Flight

Challenger STS-51-L: The Night Engineers Said Don’t Launch

Voyager 1 Nears One Light-Day: Thrusters, Power and the Big Bang

How Starship’s Tower Catches Super Heavy: Flight 5 and After

Artemis 3 Becomes an Earth-Orbit Rehearsal for Moon Landers

Why Starship’s Heat Shield Uses Hexagonal Tiles and Full Reuse

Challenger: the O-Ring Chart and the Launch-Eve Teleconference

Challenger STS-51-L: The Seals, the Cold and 73 Seconds

Apollo 13: The Dropped Tank and Switches Behind the Explosion

Voyager 1 Pale Blue Dot: Why the Cameras Looked Back in 1990

Challenger’s Wreckage: Why NASA Sealed It in Missile Silos

Challenger: How Thiokol’s Engineers Were Overruled the Night Before

Curiosity at 14: Keeping a Mars Rover Running by Remote Control

Challenger STS-51-L: O-Ring Warnings, Cabin Evidence, Rogers Findings

Columbia STS-107: Five Failures Behind the Foam Strike on the Wing

Challenger STS-51-L: O-Rings, Cold and the Overruled Warning

Voyager 1 Reaches One Light-Day: Power, Memory and the Golden Record

How the Sky Crane Landed Curiosity on Mars in Seven Minutes

Apollo 13: How a Thermostat Error Led to the Oxygen Tank Blast

Apollo 13: How an Oxygen Tank Failure Nearly Stranded Three Men

Six Mars Rovers Compared: Landings, Discoveries and Distances

Voyager 1 and 2: Planetary Tour to One Light-Day From Earth

Challenger STS-51-L: The Cold O-Ring and the Launch Call

Apollo 13: The Tank Flaw and Crew’s Lifeboat Return

Challenger STS-51-L: The O-Ring Warning and the 73-Second Flight

Space Shuttle Story in a Card Box: Enterprise, Challenger, Columbia

Voyager 1: How It Proved It Had Reached Interstellar Space

Voyager 1: How It Proved It Had Reached Interstellar Space

How these numbers are counted