Missions

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.

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.

Lunar Vertex will be the first mission to carry out a comprehensive study of lunar magnetic anomaly and the associated swirl and mini-magnetosphere.

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.

A mission to survey Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and determine whether it has conditions suitable to harboring life.

Parker Solar Probe dives closer to the Sun than humanity has ever ventured to unlock the mysteries of our nearest star.

APL balloon missions and instruments observe planetary targets and the interstellar medium, and conduct other space science investigations.

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.

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.

For nearly two decades, the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission has explored the gateway between Earth and space.

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.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was NASA’s first planetary defense test mission.

A mission to explore Earth’s harsh radiation belt environment and the dynamics of geomagnetic storms

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.

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.

APL is proud to conceptualize and implement highly classified and critically important spaceflight missions to enable our nation’s security.

The APL designed, developed, and tested Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC) helped solve the challenge of locating and tracking active satellites in and on the way to geosynchronous orbit, more than 22,000 miles above Earth.