25 Active NASA Missions Currently Operating in Space
Right now, as you read this, dozens of NASA spacecraft are hurtling through the void, orbiting distant planets, surfing the solar wind, and peering at the universe’s oldest light. NASA currently operates more than 80 active science missions — a staggering portfolio that spans everything from monitoring sea levels on Earth to searching for life around Jupiter’s icy moons.
Narrowing that list to just 25 isn’t easy. The missions featured here were selected based on scientific impact, public interest, and their ability to represent the full breadth of what NASA does. Whether you’re a space enthusiast or just curious about what humanity has launched into the cosmos, this curated list gives you the most compelling snapshot of NASA’s active operations — organized by domain so you can quickly find what interests you most.
From the revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope to veteran orbiters that have been circling Mars for over two decades, these 25 active NASA missions are rewriting textbooks and reshaping our understanding of the universe in real time.
Understanding NASA’s Mission Domains
Before diving into the list, it helps to know how NASA organizes its work. Active missions fall into five broad categories:
– Earth Science — Satellites and sensors studying our planet’s climate, ice, oceans, and atmosphere
– Planetary Science — Missions to the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and the outer solar system
– Heliophysics — Research focused on the Sun, space weather, and the magnetic environment around Earth
– Astrophysics — Telescopes and observatories probing stars, galaxies, black holes, and exoplanets
– Human Spaceflight — Crewed missions and programs designed to extend human presence beyond Earth
An “active” mission means the spacecraft is currently operational and returning scientific data — not in a dormant state and not decommissioned. Some missions here are in extended phases beyond their original end dates, which speaks to just how well NASA engineers build their hardware.
Earth Science Missions
1. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich
Primary Objective: Measure global sea level with centimeter-scale precision
Launch Date: November 21, 2020
Named after former NASA Earth Science Division Director Michael Freilich, this satellite is the gold standard for sea level monitoring. It tracks rising oceans with unprecedented accuracy, providing data that directly informs climate models and coastal flood risk assessments worldwide.
2. Landsat 9
Primary Objective: Monitor Earth’s land surface and track environmental change
Launch Date: September 27, 2021
Landsat 9 is the latest chapter in the longest continuous space-based record of Earth’s land surface, a program that stretches back to 1972. It images every point on Earth every 16 days, giving scientists and policymakers unmatched data on deforestation, agriculture, urban growth, and natural disasters.
3. ICESat-2
Primary Objective: Measure changes in ice sheet elevation, sea ice, and vegetation height
Launch Date: September 15, 2018
Using a photon-counting laser altimeter, ICESat-2 fires 10,000 laser pulses per second at Earth’s surface. It detects elevation changes as small as the width of a pencil — critical for tracking ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica as global temperatures rise.
4. GRACE Follow-On
Primary Objective: Map changes in Earth’s gravity field caused by shifting water mass
Launch Date: May 22, 2018
Two identical spacecraft fly in formation 220 kilometers apart, measuring the microscopic changes in distance between them caused by gravitational variations below. The result? A monthly “water weight” map of the entire planet, revealing groundwater depletion, ice melt, and ocean circulation shifts that no other instrument can detect.
5. TEMPO
Primary Objective: Monitor air pollution over North America from geostationary orbit
Launch Date: April 7, 2023
TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) is the first space instrument designed to measure North American air quality at hourly intervals. Parked in geostationary orbit, it tracks pollutants like ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and formaldehyde — providing data that could transform how cities manage air quality and public health alerts.
Planetary Science Missions
6. Mars Perseverance Rover
Primary Objective: Search for signs of ancient microbial life and collect surface samples
Landed: February 18, 2021
Perseverance is NASA’s most sophisticated Mars rover ever deployed. Operating in Jezero Crater — an ancient lake bed — it’s collecting and caching rock and soil samples for a future return mission to Earth. It has already detected organic molecules and confirmed that Jezero Crater once held a lake capable of supporting life.
7. Ingenuity Helicopter
Primary Objective: Demonstrate powered flight on Mars
Landed with Perseverance: February 18, 2021
Originally designed for just five test flights, Ingenuity became the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet. It completed over 70 flights before a rotor blade issue ended its operations in January 2024 — but its legacy permanently changed what’s possible in planetary exploration.
8. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Primary Objective: High-resolution imaging and atmospheric study of Mars
Arrived at Mars: March 10, 2006
MRO has been circling Mars for nearly two decades, imaging the surface with a camera sharp enough to spot a dinner table from orbit. It also serves as a critical communications relay for surface missions and has revealed evidence of seasonal water ice and ancient river channels.
9. Mars Odyssey
Primary Objective: Map Mars surface mineralogy and search for subsurface water ice
Arrived at Mars: October 24, 2001
The longest-operating spacecraft at Mars, Odyssey has been in continuous operation for over two decades. It mapped vast deposits of hydrogen near the Martian poles — strong evidence for subsurface water ice — and continues to relay data from rovers to Earth.
10. MAVEN
Primary Objective: Study Mars’ upper atmosphere and how it was lost to space
Arrived at Mars: September 21, 2014
MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) cracked one of the biggest mysteries in planetary science: how Mars went from a warm, wet world to the frozen desert we see today. The answer lies in solar wind stripping the atmosphere away — and MAVEN is still measuring that process in real time.
11. Juno
Primary Objective: Investigate Jupiter’s origin, interior, atmosphere, and magnetosphere
Arrived at Jupiter: July 4, 2016
Juno has revolutionized our understanding of the solar system’s largest planet. Its close passes have revealed Jupiter’s pole to be a chaotic tangle of cyclones, its interior to lack a solid core, and its magnetic field to be far more complex than predicted. Its extended mission now includes flybys of Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
12. Lucy
Primary Objective: Study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids — relics of the early solar system
Launch Date: October 16, 2021
Lucy is on a 12-year journey to visit eight asteroids — more than any previous mission. Its primary targets are the Trojan asteroids, which share Jupiter’s orbit and are considered pristine fossils from the solar system’s formation. Think of them as time capsules orbiting at the boundary between the inner and outer solar system.
13. Psyche
Primary Objective: Explore a metal-rich asteroid believed to be an exposed planetary core
Launch Date: October 13, 2023
Psyche is heading to a unique asteroid of the same name — an object that appears to be largely composed of metal, possibly the exposed core of an early planet that was stripped of its rocky mantle by ancient collisions. If confirmed, it would be humanity’s first direct look at what Earth’s core might look like.
14. OSIRIS-APEX (formerly OSIRIS-REx)
Primary Objective: Now en route to asteroid Apophis after successfully delivering Bennu samples
Original Launch Date: September 8, 2016
After delivering a sample from asteroid Bennu to Earth on September 24, 2023 — the largest asteroid sample ever returned — the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and redirected to asteroid Apophis. It will arrive in 2029, just as Apophis makes an extraordinarily close pass by Earth.
15. Europa Clipper
Primary Objective: Assess whether Jupiter’s moon Europa could support life
Launch Date: October 2024
Europa Clipper is one of the most anticipated missions in decades. Europa harbors a liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust — and where there’s liquid water and chemistry, there could be life. The spacecraft will perform nearly 50 close flybys of Europa, studying its ice shell, ocean, and surface in detail.
Heliophysics Missions
16. Parker Solar Probe
Primary Objective: Study the Sun’s outer corona and solar wind origin
Launch Date: August 12, 2018
Parker Solar Probe holds the record as the closest human-made object to the Sun. It has actually flown through the Sun’s corona — the outer atmosphere — surviving temperatures exceeding a million degrees Celsius thanks to an advanced heat shield. Its data is solving long-standing mysteries about why the corona is hotter than the Sun’s surface.
17. Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)
Primary Objective: Study the Sun’s interior, atmosphere, and magnetic field in real time
Launch Date: February 11, 2010
SDO captures an image of the Sun every 12 seconds across multiple wavelengths, building an unparalleled record of solar activity. It has tracked solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and sunspot cycles — giving space weather forecasters the data they need to protect satellites, power grids, and astronauts.
18. STEREO
Primary Objective: Observe the Sun and solar wind phenomena in three dimensions
Launch Date: October 25, 2006
STEREO deployed two spacecraft on slightly different orbits to provide stereoscopic views of the Sun — similar to how two eyes give humans depth perception. This 3D perspective revolutionized tracking of coronal mass ejections, the dangerous solar plasma clouds that can disrupt Earth’s technology infrastructure.
19. Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS)
Primary Objective: Study magnetic reconnection in Earth’s magnetosphere
Launch Date: March 12, 2015
Four spacecraft flying in formation through Earth’s magnetic environment have captured magnetic reconnection — a process where magnetic field lines break and snap together, explosively releasing energy — in unprecedented detail. MMS observations have implications for fusion energy research on Earth as well as space weather forecasting.
Astrophysics Missions
20. James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
Primary Objective: Observe the first galaxies, star formation, and exoplanet atmospheres
Launch Date: December 25, 2021
JWST is arguably the most powerful scientific instrument ever built. Orbiting the Sun at the second Lagrange point (1.5 million kilometers from Earth), it observes the universe in infrared light — seeing through dust clouds and back to within 300 million years of the Big Bang. In its first years of operation, it has imaged galaxy clusters, detected water vapor on exoplanets, and revealed the universe’s early structure in stunning clarity.
21. Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
Primary Objective: Optical and ultraviolet observations of the cosmos
Launch Date: April 24, 1990
Over 35 years after launch, Hubble is still delivering science. It determined the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate (leading to the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of dark energy), imaged galaxies billions of light-years away, and became a cultural icon. While JWST handles the infrared, Hubble’s optical and UV capabilities remain irreplaceable.
22. Chandra X-ray Observatory
Primary Objective: Detect X-ray emissions from extreme cosmic environments
Launch Date: July 23, 1999
Chandra has been humanity’s eyes on the X-ray universe for 25 years. It images the superheated gas surrounding black holes, neutron stars, and galaxy clusters — environments so extreme that they emit light invisible to any other telescope. Despite budget pressures in recent years, Chandra continues to produce groundbreaking science.
23. Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)
Primary Objective: Discover exoplanets around nearby stars using the transit method
Launch Date: April 18, 2018
TESS monitors hundreds of thousands of stars simultaneously, looking for the tiny brightness dips that occur when a planet passes in front of its host star. It has identified thousands of exoplanet candidates and confirmed hundreds, including several potentially rocky worlds in habitable zones — prime targets for follow-up with JWST.
24. NuSTAR
Primary Objective: Detect high-energy X-rays from black holes, neutron stars, and supernovae
Launch Date: June 13, 2012
NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) is the first telescope capable of focusing high-energy X-rays into sharp images. It has mapped the radioactive debris in supernova remnants, imaged the region immediately around supermassive black holes, and tracked high-energy particles across the galaxy with precision no previous observatory could achieve.
Human Spaceflight Programs
25. International Space Station (ISS)
Primary Objective: Scientific research in microgravity and preparation for deep-space exploration
Continuously Crewed Since: November 2, 2000
The ISS is a joint project between NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA, and CSA — the most ambitious international science collaboration ever attempted in space. It hosts rotating crews of six astronauts who conduct experiments in biology, physics, materials science, and medicine. As NASA prepares to retire the ISS by 2030 and transition to commercial stations, it remains the cornerstone of human spaceflight operations.
A note on the Artemis Program: While Artemis II (a crewed lunar flyby) has not yet launched as of this writing, the Artemis program represents NASA’s most consequential human exploration initiative in decades — aiming to return humans to the Moon, including the first woman and first person of color to set foot on the lunar surface.
Why These Missions Matter
The sheer diversity of these 25 active NASA missions reflects a simple truth: understanding space means understanding Earth, and vice versa. Earth science missions are tracking climate change with precision that ground-based instruments can’t match. Planetary missions are answering whether life exists — or once existed — beyond our pale blue dot. Heliophysics missions are protecting the technology-dependent civilization we’ve built by helping us forecast the Sun’s violent outbursts.
Astrophysics missions, meanwhile, are answering the biggest questions humans have ever asked: How did the universe begin? Are we alone? What is dark matter? And human spaceflight is keeping the dream of exploration alive while generating medical, materials, and engineering breakthroughs that trickle down to everyday life.
The data NASA collects doesn’t stay in journals, either. It influences public health policy, disaster response, agricultural planning, and national security. When ICESat-2 confirms accelerating glacier melt or TEMPO detects a pollution spike over a major city, that’s actionable intelligence for the people who govern our world.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many total active NASA missions are there?
NASA currently operates more than 80 active science missions. The 25 featured in this article represent a curated selection spanning all five mission domains — Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics, astrophysics, and human spaceflight.
What makes a NASA mission “active”?
An active mission is one that is currently operational and returning scientific data. This includes missions in extended phases beyond their original planned end dates — which is common, since NASA spacecraft often outlive their design lifetimes significantly.
What is NASA’s most important current mission?
That depends on your definition of “important.” The James Webb Space Telescope is arguably the most transformative scientific instrument currently operating, given its ability to observe the early universe and exoplanet atmospheres. Mars Perseverance is the most important for astrobiology. Europa Clipper could become the most historically significant if it finds evidence supporting a habitable ocean.
Is the Ingenuity Helicopter still active?
As of January 2024, Ingenuity’s operations ended due to rotor blade damage sustained during landing. However, it far exceeded its original mission scope, completing over 70 flights before going silent.
When will NASA return humans to the Moon?
NASA’s Artemis program is targeting a crewed lunar flyby (Artemis II) and a crewed lunar landing (Artemis III) in the mid-2020s, though schedules have shifted. The goal is to establish a sustainable human presence near the Moon by the end of the decade.
What happened to the OSIRIS-REx mission?
After successfully collecting and delivering a sample from asteroid Bennu to Earth in September 2023, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and redirected to asteroid Apophis, which it will reach in 2029.
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The Universe Is Still Wide Open
From satellites that weigh water on continents to observatories that peer at galaxies formed just after the Big Bang, these 25 active NASA missions represent humanity’s most ambitious and sustained effort to understand the cosmos and protect our own world in the process.
The extraordinary thing isn’t just what these missions have already discovered — it’s what they’re still finding. Every new orbit, every data transmission, every sample collected is adding to a body of knowledge that will inform science, policy, and human curiosity for generations to come. NASA has over 80 missions running simultaneously, which means this list of 25 is just the beginning of an even larger story of exploration still being written in real time.