Missions

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched on the first-of-its-kind mission to find worlds beyond our solar system, including some that could support life.

NASA’s next mission to continue the search for Earth-like worlds is ready to blast off.

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is undergoing final preparations in Florida for its April 16 launch to find undiscovered worlds around nearby stars, providing targets where future studies will assess their capacity to harbor life.

NASA’s Planetary Science Division Director, Jim Green, describes his own gravity assist under the tutelage of James Van Allen, whose discoveries paved the way for studying the magnetic fields and radiation belts of the planets.

Europe’s first mission to Mercury will soon be ready for shipping to the spaceport to begin final preparations for launch.

Trailing Earth’s orbit at 94 million miles away, the Kepler space telescope has survived many potential knock-outs during its nine years in flight, from mechanical failures to being blasted by cosmic rays.

A new, ground-based spectrometer designed and built at Yale represents the most powerful step yet in the effort to identify Earth-sized planets in neighboring solar systems.

Water is crucial for life, but how do you make water? Cooking up some H2O takes more than mixing hydrogen and oxygen. It requires the special conditions found deep within frigid molecular clouds, where dust shields against destructive ultraviolet light and aids chemical reactions. NASA’s

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will identify exoplanets orbiting the brightest stars just outside our solar system.

Planetary Science Institute scientists are involved in both missions selected by NASA to receive concept development funding to robotically explore the Solar System.