Mission Milestone

ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to perform flyby of Venus this month, arriving at Jupiter in 2031.

NASA craft to perform Jupiter flyby during Perijove 75, its 75th close flyby of Jupiter and 74th science flyby with instruments turned on.

NASA craft to perform Jupiter flyby during Perijove 76, its 76th close flyby of Jupiter and 75th science flyby with instruments turned on – to be last flyby of planet before controlled impact into Jupiter clouds.

ISS Expedition 73 members Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritsky and Jonny Kim planned to return to Earth today in Roscosmos Soyuz MS-27 craft, landing in Kazakhstan.

After a final reboost of the ISS, CRS-33, SpaceX Cargo Dragon, is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station for return to Earth, with research samples and cargo, via spashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The reboost capability of Dragon is from the "kit" attached to the outside of the […]

NASA Astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams will conduct U.S. spacewalk 94, exiting the Quest airlock at about 08:00 EDT | 12:00 UTC | 02:00 HST (video coverage beginning 1.5 hours ahead) to prepare the 2A power channel for the future International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSA) installation. It will be […]

Expected for 17:07 PDT | 14:07 HST | 20:07 EDT | 00:07 UTC, after ~10-day journey around the Moon and 4-day return to Earth from Moon. A joint team of NASA specialists and U.S. Navy divers will secure the capsule, check for hazards, and recover the crew. Five large airbags […]

Expected 2 days after launch from Kazakhstan, arriving ~22:21 UTC with ~7,280 kg of cargo.

On its way to the asteroid Psyche, the Psyche spacecraft will pass within 4,500 km of Mars and will harness the planet’s gravitational pull to speed up and adjust its trajectory toward the metal-rich asteroid. The spacecraft was launched October 13, 2023, and by August 2029, the spacecraft will begin […]

Sample-return spacecraft Tianwen-2 will perform an orbit-insertion burn at asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa on Sunday, June 7, 13 months after its launch in May 2025. It is expected to begin collecting samples early next month. https://www.techtimes.com/articles/317613/20260602/tianwen-2-asteroid-orbit-insertion-set-june-7-amateurs-decode-telemetry.htm Kamoʻoalewa, formally designated 2016 HO3, was discovered in April 2016 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope […]

NET Nov — CNSA CE-7 mission planned to land at Shackleton Crater Ridge near Moon South Pole region to survey environment and resources with Relay Satellite, Orbiter, Lander (Rashid-2 from UAE), Rover, Mini-Flying Probe; lander has national science payloads as well as 6 international instruments integrated: from Egypt, Bahrain, Italy, […]

NET Nov — European Space Agency / JAXA Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO) expected to reach Mercury, achieve polar orbit and spacecraft separation; will map planet, investigate magnetosphere.

China Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission planned to depart Kamo’oalewa (2016 HO3) today and return to Earth with least 100 grams of sample, to enter Earth atmosphere on Nov 29, 2027.

NASA mission to encounter 11 asteroids including a main belt and 7 Jupiter Trojans to come within 1,000 km of 64-km diameter 3548 Eurybates asteroid and its 1-km diameter satellite Queta.

NASA mission to encounter 11 asteroids including a main belt and 7 Jupiter Trojans to come within 415 km of 21-km diameter 15094 Polymele asteroid which may be a collisional fragment and rich in organic tholin compounds.

China asteroid sample return capsule planned to return to Earth today with at least 100 grams from Kamo’oalewa (2016 HO3); main Tianwen-2 craft is on trajectory to Main Asteroid Belt to rendezvous with comet 311/P PanSTARRS in 2035.

☆ NET Dec — JAXA Hayabusa 2 mission to perform first flyby Earth today on way to rendezvous with asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031, after returning samples from (162173) Ryugu to Earth in 2020 and flying by asteroid 98943 Torifune in 2026.

NET 2028 — Standard funding of International Space Station may end this year from partner Russia; mission extension to at least 2030 from other partners is expected; future goals and scientific, engineering, utilization, education potential to be determined.

NET Apr — European Space Agency / JAXA Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (BepiColombo) nominal mission ends this month, 5.82 Mercury years after orbit insertion; potential extended mission and plans TBD.

NASA's Lucy mission, to encounter 11 asteroids including a main belt and 7 Jupiter Trojans, planned to come within 1,000 km of 34-km diameter 11351 Leucus asteroid today.

☆ NET Jun — JAXA Hayabusa 2 mission to perform second flyby Earth today on way to rendezvous with asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031, after returning samples from (162173) Ryugu to Earth in 2020 and flying by asteroid 98943 Torifune in 2026.

NASA Lucy mission, to encounter 11 asteroids including a main belt and 7 Jupiter Trojans, to come within 1,000 km of 51-km diameter 21900 Orus asteroid (which may be a possible binary) today.

NET 2029 — Scheduled end of European Space Agency Euclid mission which is measuring accelerated expansion of Universe, aiding in understanding of dark energy / dark matter; future plans / extensions to be determined.

NET 2029 — NASA and JPL Caltech Psyche Mission to investigate all-metal asteroid Psyche to insert itself into asteroid orbit around beginning on this year if launching 2026.

NET Jan — ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to perform 3rd and final flyby of Earth this month, arriving at Jupiter in 2031.

NET Feb — INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) space telescope will burn up upon Earth atmosphere reentry this month due to natural orbit decay after running out of fuel reserves / end of science mission in early 2020s; launched Oct 2002.

OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer (OSIRIS-APEX) is planned rendezvous with and orbit asteroid Apophis starting today for 9 months following the asteroid’s close Earth approach which occurred April 13, 2029; craft previously known as Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) which returned samples from asteroid Bennu to Earth on Sep 24, 2023.

NET July — China Chang’E-2 spacecraft expected to come within 7M km of Earth around this date after reaching 300M km apogee; craft was launched 1 October 2010.

NET Oct — ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to perform flyby of Asteroid 223 Rosa this month, arriving at Jupiter in 2031.

NET 2030 — Europe hopes to have built a sustainable Moon Village by this date, while working toward Mars missions.

Europa Clipper mission to insert into Jupiter orbit on this day to study Galileo moon Europa through a series of 44 close flybys (25 to 2,700 km); launched 10 October 2024.

ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to perform flyby of moon Europa this month.

NASA Lucy mission to come within 1,000 km of 113-km diameter 617 Patroclus and 104-km diameter Menoetius, p-type binary asteroids; Lucy will be in a stable, 6-year orbit between the L4 and L5 -- mission extension may be granted.

End of primary mission for NASA Lucy mission, future science and mission plan extension TBD; mission is a twelve-year journey to eight different asteroids, and craft will continue to orbit the Sun in a stable orbit between the L4 and L5 Trojan swarms around Jupiter. 

ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) expected to achieve Ganymede elliptical orbit insertion this month.

China asteroid sample return mission, having returned at least 100 grams from Kamo’oalewa (2016 HO3), to rendezvous with and begin orbiting Comet 311/P PanSTARRS for 1 year.

ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) is planned to be deorbited and impact Ganymede at the end of 2035, having reached Jupiter in 2031.