List of heliophysics missions

This is a list of missions supporting heliophysics, including solar observatory missions, solar orbiters, and spacecraft studying the solar wind.

Past and current missions

Spacecraft	Launch date	Operator	Orbit	Outcome	Remarks	Carrier rocket
Explorer 10		NASA	highly elliptical geocentric		Deorbited 1 June 1968	Thor DM-19 Delta
OSO 1		NASA	low Earth		Deorbited 7 October 1981	Thor-Delta
Ariel 1		SERC/NASA	low Earth		Deorbited 24 May 1976	Thor DM-19 Delta
Orbiting Geophysical Observatory		NASA	various geocentric		6 satellites, last deorbited 29 August 2020	Atlas Agena, Thor Agena
OSO 2		NASA	low Earth		Deorbited 8 August 1989	Thor-Delta
OSO 3		NASA	low Earth		Observed solar flares from the Sun, as well as a flare from Scorpius X-1; Deorbited 4 April 1982	Thor-Delta
OSO 4		NASA	low Earth		Deorbited 14 June 1982	Thor-Delta
OSO 5		NASA	low Earth		Measured diffuse background X-ray radiation from 14-200 keV; Deorbited 2 April 1984	Thor-Delta
OSO 6		NASA	low Earth		Observed three instances of hard X-ray coincidences with gamma ray bursts; Deorbited 7 March 1981	Thor-Delta
OSO 7		NASA	low Earth		Observed solar flares in the gamma ray spectrum; Collected data allowed for identification of Vela X-1 as a High-mass X-ray binary; Deorbited 8 July 1974	Thor-Delta
Prognoz 1		USSR	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar activity	Soyuz
Prognoz 2		USSR	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar activity	Soyuz
Skylab and the Apollo Telescope Mount		NASA	low Earth		Deorbited 11 July 1979	Saturn INT-21
Prognoz 3		USSR	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar activity	Soyuz
Explorer 50		NASA	high Earth		Contact lost 7 October 2006	Delta
Helios		NASA / DFVLR	heliocentric		2 spacecraft, last contact 10 Feb 1986	Titan IIIE/Star-37
Taiyo		ISAS	elliptical geocentric		Solar X-ray, UV radiation, and ionosphere studies; Deorbited 29 June 1980	M-3C
OSO 8		NASA	low Earth		Found an iron emission line in the X-ray spectrum of a galaxy cluster; Deorbited 8 July 1986	Thor-Delta
Prognoz 4		USSR	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar radiation and Plasma, and Earth's magnetosphere	Soyuz
Prognoz 6		USSR	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar radiation and Plasma, and Earth's magnetosphere	Soyuz
ISEE-1		NASA	high Earth		Deorbited 26 September 1987	Thor-Delta 2914
ISEE-2		NASA	high Earth		Deorbited 26 September 1987	Thor-Delta 2914
Prognoz 7		USSR	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar radiation and Plasma, Earth's magnetosphere, UV, X-ray and Gamma ray astronomy; Carried Czechoslovakian, French, Hungarian and Swedish experiments	Soyuz
Voyager 2		NASA	heliocentric to galactocentric		Part of Voyager program, the spacecraft left heliosphere	Titan IIIE/ Centaur
Voyager 1		NASA	heliocentric to galactocentric		Part of Voyager program, the spacecraft left heliosphere	Titan IIIE Centaur
International Cometary Explorer		NASA	Earth-Sun L1 halo to heliocentric		Contact lost 16 September 2014	Thor-Delta 2914
Prognoz 8		USSR	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar radiation and Plasma, and Earth's magnetosphere; Carried Czechoslovakian, Polish and Swedish experiments	Soyuz
International Cometary Explorer		NASA	Earth-Sun L1 halo to heliocentric		Contact lost 16 September 2014	Delta 2914
Solar Maximum Mission		NASA	low Earth		Deorbited 2 December 1989	Delta 3910
Prognoz 9		USSR	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar and cosmic radiation, Solar Plasma, Earth's magnetosphere and Gamma rays; Carried Czechoslovakian and French experiments	Soyuz
Prognoz 10		USSR	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere; Intercosmos 23; Carried Czechoslovakian experiments	Soyuz
Ulysses		NASA/ESA	high-inclination heliocentric		Decommissioned 30 June 2009	Space Shuttle Discovery
Yohkoh		ISAS / NASA / PPARC	low Earth		Deorbited 12 September 2005	Mu-3S-II
Geotail		ISAS/NASA	high Earth		Deactivated 28 November 2022.	Delta II 6925
Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer		NASA/MPE	low Earth		Deorbited 13 November 2012	Scout G-1
WIND		NASA	Earth-Sun L1 halo			Delta II
CORONAS-I		Russia	low Earth		12 instruments	Tsyklone-3
Prognoz 11		Russia	highly elliptical geocentric		Study Solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere	Molniya
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory		ESA/NASA	Earth-Sun L1 halo			Atlas IIAS
Prognoz 12		Russia	highly elliptical geocentric		Study aurora	Molniya
Polar		NASA	highly elliptical geocentric		Decommissioned 28 April 2008	Delta II 7925-10
Cluster		ESA	highly elliptical geocentric	at launch	4 spacecraft	Ariane 5G
Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer		NASA	low Earth		Decommissioned 4 May 2009	Pegasus-XL
Advanced Composition Explorer		NASA	Earth-Sun L1 Lissajous			Delta II 7920-8
Spartan 201		NASA	low Earth	during deployment	Landed 5 December 1997	Space Shuttle Columbia
Equator-S		ISTP/MPE	geosynchronous transfer orbit	success	Contact lost 1 May 1998	Ariane 4 (44P)
Transition Region and Coronal Explorer		NASA	low Earth		Decommissioned 21 June 2010	Pegasus-XL
Student Nitric Oxide Explorer		LASP	low Earth		Deorbited 13 December 2003	Pegasus-XL
Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor Satellite		NASA	low Earth		Contact lost 14 December 2013	Taurus 2110
IMAGE		NASA	high Earth		Contact lost 18 December 2005	Delta II 7326-9.5
Cluster II		ESA	high Earth		4 Spacecraft, replaced the original Cluster mission that failed on launch.	Soyuz-U/Fregat
Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics		NASA	low Earth			Delta II 7920-10
CORONAS-F		Russia	low Earth		16 instruments, worked until 2005	Tsyklon-3
Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager		NASA	low Earth		Decommissioned 16 August 2018 Deorbited 2023	Pegasus-XL
Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment		NASA/LASP	low Earth		Decommissioned 25 February 2020	Pegasus-XL
Double Star		CNSA/ESA	highly elliptical geocentric		2 spacecraft, one was deorbited 14 October 2007 the other remains in orbit	Long March 2C
PAMELA detector		PAMELA group	low Earth		Decommissioned 7 February 2016	Soyuz-U
TWINS A & B		NASA	highly elliptical geocentric		2 hosted payloads, decommissioned 2020	Delta IV-M+, Atlas V 411
Hinode		JAXA / NASA / PPARC	low Earth			M-V
Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory		NASA	heliocentric		2 spacecraft, 1 still operational	Delta II 7925
CORONAS-Photon		Russia	low Earth		11 instruments, failed after 10 months due to power supply problems	Tsyklon-3
Space Technology 5		NASA	low Earth		3 spacecraft, decommissioned 30 June 2006	Pegasus-XL
Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere		NASA	low Earth			Pegasus-XL
Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms		NASA	various		5 spacecraft	Delta II 7925-10C
Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigations		NASA	low Earth		Deorbited 28 November 2015	Pegasus-XL
IBEX		NASA	high Earth			Pegasus-XL/Star-27
Solar Dynamics Observatory		NASA	geosynchronous			Atlas V 401
Van Allen Probes formerly Radiation Belt Storm Probes		NASA	highly elliptical geocentric		2 spacecraft, decommissioned 2019	Atlas V 401
Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses		NASA	atmospheric		total of 63 flights, last launched 30 August 2016	high-altitude balloons
Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph		NASA	low Earth			Pegasus-XL
Swarm		ESA	low Earth		3 spacecraft	Rokot / Briz-KM
Deep Space Climate Observatory		NASA/NOAA	Earth-Sun L1 Lissajous			Falcon 9 v1.1
Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission		NASA	highly elliptical geocentric		4 spacecraft	Atlas V 421
Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk		NASA	geosynchronous			Ariane 5 ECA
Parker Solar Probe formerly Solar Probe Plus		NASA	heliocentric			Delta IV Heavy
Space Environment Testbeds		AFRL	medium Earth		Decommissioned 31 May 2021	Falcon Heavy
Ionospheric Connection Explorer		SSL/NASA	low Earth		Contact lost November 2022	Pegasus-XL
Solar Orbiter		ESA/NASA	24°-inclination heliocentric			Atlas V 411
Sunstorm	17 August 2021	ESA	low Earth		CubeSat	Vega
Aditya-L1		ISRO	Earth-Sun L1 Halo			PSLV-XL
CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment		NASA	low Earth		2 spacecraft	Ariane 6
PROBA-3		ESA	Highly elliptical orbit		2 spacecraft	PSLV-XL
PUNCH		NASA	Sun-synchronous orbit			Falcon 9
EZIE		NASA				Falcon 9
TRACERS		NASA				Falcon 9
Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe		NASA	L1 Lagrange point			Falcon 9
Carruthers Geocorona Observatory		NASA	L1 Lagrange point			Falcon 9
Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1		NOAA	L1 Lagrange point			Falcon 9

Planned missions

Spacecraft	Launch date	Operator	Orbit	Description
SunRISE	Summer 2026	NASA	supersynchronous geosynchronous Earth orbit	6 CubeSats
SMILE		ESA/CAS	Highly elliptical orbit
HENON		ESA	Sun-Earth Lagrange point 2	Space weather mission to demonstrate solar storm forecasting capabilities
MUSE		NASA
SOLAR-C		JAXA
HelioSwarm		NASA		nine spacecraft
Solar Polar Orbit Observatory		CNSA	heliocentric polar orbiter
Vigil		ESA	Earth-Sun L5 and L1	2 spacecraft