Voyages of Exploration
As spaceflight pioneers with six decades of experience, APL has designed, built and operated and led more than 70 spacecraft missions — including some of NASA's most innovative and challenging missions over the past two decades.
Future
Now in development, these game-changing missions are poised to reshape how we think about exploring worlds and phenomena across the solar system.
Learn more about IMAP
IMAP
NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission, which APL is building in partnership with Principal Investigator David McComas of Princeton University, will explore our solar neighborhood, called the heliosphere — decoding the messages in particles from the Sun and beyond our cosmic shield.
Learn more about Europa Clipper
Europa Clipper
A mission to survey Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and determine whether it has conditions suitable to harboring life.
Learn more about Dragonfly
Dragonfly
Dragonfly is a NASA New Frontiers mission that will send a rotorcraft lander to explore the prebiotic chemistry and habitability of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.
Learn more about EZIE
EZIE
The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) will characterize the electrojets that flow high in Earth’s atmosphere to reveal the underlying processes that form them.
Learn more about Lunar Vertex
Lunar Vertex
Lunar Vertex will be the first mission to carry out a comprehensive study of lunar magnetic anomaly and the associated swirl and mini-magnetosphere.
Present
These missions, dispatched to destinations from the Sun to Pluto and beyond, are sending home data that are changing our views of the solar system — and beyond.
Learn more about DART
DART
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is NASA’s first planetary defense test mission.
Learn more about Parker Solar Probe
Parker Solar Probe
Parker Solar Probe dives closer to the Sun than humanity has ever ventured to unlock the mysteries of our nearest star.
Learn more about Balloon Programs
Balloon Programs
APL balloon missions and instruments observe planetary targets and the interstellar medium, and conduct other space science investigations.
Learn more about STEREO
STEREO
The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) mission has provided 3D views of the solar corona, coronal mass ejections and the solar wind, and advanced space weather forecasting.
Learn more about New Horizons
New Horizons
New Horizons is the first mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the distant region of planetary building blocks that hold keys to our solar system’s formation.
Learn more about TIMED
TIMED
For nearly two decades, the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission has explored the gateway between Earth and Space.
Learn more about ACE
ACE
A heliophysics observatory, the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) provides early warning of geomagnetic storms that can overload power grids, disrupt communications on Earth and present a hazard to astronauts.
Past
A sampling of the many completed APL missions that changed the paradigm of space science — and set the stage for today’s voyages of exploration across the solar system.
Learn more about Van Allen Probes
Van Allen Probes
A mission to explore Earth’s harsh radiation belt environment and the dynamics of geomagnetic storms.
Learn more about MESSENGER
MESSENGER
MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) was the first mission to orbit Mercury, shedding unprecedented light on the origins and evolution of the innermost planet.
Learn more about NEAR
NEAR
The first launch in NASA’s Discovery program, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) was the first mission to orbit and land on an asteroid.