Aeronautics and Space Report of the President FY 1995 Activities

Appendix B-3

U.S.-Launched Space Probes, 1975-Sep. 30, 1995

Date Name Launch Vehicle Remarks
Aug. 20, 1975 Viking 1 Titan IIIE- Centaur Lander descended, landed safely on Mars on Plains of Chryse, Sept. 6, 1976, while orbiter circled planet photographing it and relaying all data to Earth. Lander photographed its surroundings, tested soil samples for signs of life, and took measurements of atmosphere.
Sept. 9, 1975 Viking 2 Titan IIIE- Centaur Lander descended, landed safely on Mars on Plains of Utopia, July 20, 1976, while orbiter circled planet photographing it and relaying all data to Earth. Lander photographed its surroundings, tested soil samples for signs of life, and took measurements of atmosphere.
Jan. 15, 1976 Helios 2 Titan IIIE- Centaur Flew in highly elliptical orbit to within 41 million km of Sun, measuring solar wind, corona, electrons, and cosmic rays. Payload had some West German and U.S. experiments as Helios 1 plus cosmic-ray burst detector.
Aug. 20, 1977 Voyager 2 Titan IIIE- Centaur Jupiter and Saturn flyby mission. Swung around Jupiter in July 1979; arrived around Saturn in 1981; and went by Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989.
Sept. 5, 1977 Voyager 1 Titan IIIE- Centaur Jupiter and Saturn flyby mission. Passing Voyager 2 on the way, swung around Jupiter in Mar. 1979, arrived at Saturn in Nov. 1980, and headed for outer solar system.
May 20, 1978 Pioneer Venus 1 Atlas- Centaur Venus orbiter, achieved Venus orbit Dec. 4, returning imagery and data.
Aug. 8, 1978 Pioneer Venus 2 Atlas- Centaur Carried one large and three small probes plus spacecraft bus; all descended through Venus atmosphere Dec. 9 and returned data.
May 4, 1989 Magellan Space Shuttle Venus orbiter, achieved Venus orbit Aug. 10, 1990, returning radar image of surface.
Oct. 18, 1989 Galileo Space Shuttle Planetary exploration spacecraft, composed of probe to enter Jupiter's atmosphere and orbiter to return scientific data.
Oct. 6, 1990 Ulysses Space Shuttle Solar exploration spacecraft, to explore interstellar space and the Sun.
Sep. 25, 1992 Mars Observer Titan III Planetary exploration spacecraft to study the geology, geophysics, and climate of Mars; ceased communicating with Earth on Aug. 21, 1993.
Jan. 25, 1994 Clementine Titan II Experimental deep space probe that entered lunar orbit on Feb. 19, 1994, and took 1.8 million images of the surface of the Moon during the next 2 1/2 months.

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  Curator: Lillian Gipson
Last Updated: September 5, 1996
For more information contact Steve Garber, NASA History Office,
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