Which Global Space Exploration Missions Are Planned for 2026 and 2027?

Key Takeaways

• Lunar missions dominate the 2026 and 2027 exploration schedule.
• Asteroid, Mercury, Mars moon, and exoplanet missions broaden the agenda.
• Schedule uncertainty remains high for complex robotic and crewed missions.

Global Space Exploration Missions 2026 and 2027 by Destination

As of May 27, 2026, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is targeted for launch no earlier than September 2026, the European Space Agency lists Plato for January 2027, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency lists Martian Moons eXploration for fiscal year 2026, and China’s Chang’e-7 lunar mission is scheduled for 2026. Global space exploration missions 2026 and 2027 are concentrated in four categories: lunar surface delivery, human exploration preparation, planetary science, and astronomical observatories. The dates remain planning dates, launch targets, or arrival targets rather than guaranteed outcomes, because deep-space missions depend on spacecraft readiness, launch vehicle availability, planetary alignment, regulatory clearances, and mission assurance reviews.

The 2026 and 2027 mission set shows a shift from single national flagship missions toward mission clusters. The Moon has the densest schedule, with NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, Intuitive Machines’ IM-3, Astrobotic Griffin-1, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2, China’s Chang’e-7, and India’s Chandrayaan-4 preparations all contributing to the same broader contest over polar science, landing accuracy, surface mobility, and resource prospecting. ESA’s Hera and ESA/JAXA’s BepiColombo reach destination milestones in 2026, and JAXA’s MMX leaves Earth for the Martian moons.

The following table organizes the main planned or destination-arrival missions in 2026 and 2027. Dates are planning targets or destination milestones, not guarantees.

Lunar Missions Drive the 2026 Manifest

The Moon has the largest concentration of planned exploration activity in the 2026 and 2027 period. NASA’s lunar program now combines crewed Artemis flight testing, commercial lander services, robotic science payloads, rover demonstrations, and infrastructure preparation. Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, gives NASA a way to buy lunar delivery services from private companies rather than build every lander as a government spacecraft. That model spreads technical risk across several providers, but it also exposes the lunar program to commercial schedule slips and the harsh lessons of early lander operations.

Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 is listed by NASA for no earlier than July 2026. The mission is tied to the lunar south polar region and follows the loss of Astrobotic’s Peregrine Mission One in 2024. NASA’s CLPS page states that Griffin will still fly to the lunar south pole as a landing demonstration after earlier plans involving the VIPER rover changed. A successful Griffin landing would add another large American commercial lander to the Moon delivery market and would help test a spacecraft class designed for heavier lunar payloads.

Intuitive Machines’ IM-3 targets Reiner Gamma, a bright lunar swirl on the Moon’s near side. NASA identifies IM-3 as a CLPS mission that will deliver science investigations and technology demonstrations to Reiner Gamma using the Nova-C lander. The payload set includes the Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration project, known as CADRE, a small rover network designed to test autonomous teamwork, mesh radio communications, and distributed lunar measurements during a single lunar day.

Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 is planned for the lunar far side in 2026. Firefly describes the mission as a dual-spacecraft lunar delivery using its Blue Ghost lander and Elytra Dark orbital vehicle, with payloads for lunar orbit and the lunar far side. The mission will carry payloads including LuSEE-Night, a radio astronomy experiment developed with NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory. The far side offers radio quiet conditions because the Moon blocks much of Earth’s radio noise, making it an attractive site for low-frequency astronomy.

China’s Chang’e-7 adds a parallel lunar south pole campaign outside the Artemis architecture. China’s government says Chang’e-7 is scheduled for launch in 2026 and conducts environmental and resource surveys of the lunar south pole. The mission is expected to include an orbiter, lander, rover, and small hopping probe. Its interest in shadowed regions, water-related measurements, and polar terrain places it in direct scientific and strategic comparison with the NASA-led and India-Japan lunar polar efforts.

Artemis and Commercial Lunar Payloads Reshape Human Exploration

NASA’s Artemis schedule changed in early 2026. Artemis III shifted into a 2027 low Earth orbit demonstration focused on commercial human landing system testing. NASA describes Artemis III as a mission that will launch crew in Orion on the Space Launch System and test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial spacecraft from SpaceX, Blue Origin, or both.

That change matters because it separates the next crewed Artemis flight from a lunar landing attempt. Rather than sending astronauts directly to the Moon’s surface in 2027, the revised plan uses low Earth orbit to test interfaces, docking procedures, and operational steps needed before later lunar surface missions. The mission keeps Orion, the Space Launch System, and commercial lander providers tied together, but it reduces the immediate surface-landing burden for Artemis III.

Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander is another 2026 lunar infrastructure test. NASA states that Moon Base I is targeted for launch no earlier than fall 2026 and will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander to deliver NASA payloads. Blue Origin describes Mark 1 as a single-launch lunar cargo lander designed to deliver up to 3 metric tons to the lunar surface using New Glenn. That payload class would exceed the scale of many early commercial lunar landers and could support larger instruments, surface systems, and logistics demonstrations.

NASA also selected Blue Origin to deliver the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, known as VIPER, to the lunar south pole in late 2027 using a second Blue Moon Mark 1 lander. VIPER has had an unusual program path because NASA previously canceled the rover project and then pursued alternative delivery options. If the late-2027 delivery holds, VIPER would give NASA a mobile resource-mapping asset at the south pole at the same time that China, India, Japan, and commercial providers are placing stronger attention on polar terrain.

The practical effect is a lunar program made of linked demonstrations rather than one single mission. Landing accuracy, surface mobility, plume-surface interaction, resource prospecting, communications, autonomous robotics, and crewed docking all move through separate tests. This architecture can recover from a single failure more easily than a single monolithic mission, but it requires schedule discipline across many contractors and agencies.

Planetary Defense and Asteroid Sample Return Enter Operational Tests

ESA’s Hera mission is scheduled to arrive at the Didymos asteroid system in November 2026, earlier than earlier planning. Hera follows NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, known as DART, which struck Dimorphos in 2022 to change its orbit around Didymos. ESA describes Hera as a mission that will turn the DART impact into a well-understood planetary defense technique by studying the crater, the asteroid pair, and the changed orbital system.

Hera’s arrival creates one of the most important asteroid science moments of 2026 because it links impact data, ground-based observations, and close-range spacecraft measurements. Planetary defense depends on knowing how different asteroid structures respond to kinetic impact. A loose rubble pile, a fractured body, and a denser object can react differently to the same impact energy. Hera’s detailed survey should help scientists interpret the DART experiment with more confidence and refine future deflection planning.

China’s Tianwen-2, launched in May 2025, brings asteroid sample return into the 2026 and 2027 schedule. The mission targets near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa before later continuing toward main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS. Public mission material presented through the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs lists the near-Earth asteroid sample return phase for the end of November 2027. That would place China among the states that have returned asteroid samples, following Japan’s Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.

Tianwen-2’s target matters because Kamoʻoalewa is a small near-Earth object with a possible connection to lunar material. Returned samples could help test theories about how small bodies move between the Earth-Moon system and heliocentric space. The mission also gives China experience with sampling, autonomous proximity operations, Earth return, and a follow-on deep-space cruise to a comet-like object. That combination links science goals with technology that can support later Mars sample return and more ambitious small-body missions.

The following table compares four missions that extend exploration beyond ordinary lunar delivery and into sample return, planetary defense, Mercury orbit, and exoplanet detection. The dates refer to launch or arrival milestones.

Mars, Mercury, and Exoplanet Missions Extend the Science Agenda

JAXA’s Martian Moons eXploration mission, known as MMX, is planned to launch in fiscal year 2026 on Japan’s H3 rocket from Tanegashima Space Center. JAXA states that MMX will travel to the Martian system, survey Phobos and Deimos, collect material from Phobos, and return the sample to Earth. The spacecraft has been delivered to Tanegashima, which indicates the program has moved into launch-site processing rather than early development.

MMX is important because the origin of Mars’s moons remains unsettled. Phobos and Deimos may be captured asteroids, debris from a giant impact, or products of a more complex formation path. Remote sensing alone cannot answer every question because surface material may preserve chemical and mineralogical evidence that links the moons either to Mars or to small-body populations. A returned Phobos sample would let laboratories compare the material with meteorites, asteroid samples, Mars mission data, and telescope observations.

BepiColombo, a joint mission of the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, is scheduled to enter Mercury orbit on November 21, 2026, with routine science operations beginning in early 2027. ESA describes the spacecraft as a three-part mission made up of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter named Mio, and the Mercury Transfer Module. Mercury is difficult to reach because a spacecraft must lose a great deal of orbital energy to stay near the Sun rather than fall past the planet at high speed.

Mercury has received far fewer orbital missions than Mars, Venus, or the Moon. BepiColombo examines its surface, internal structure, exosphere, and magnetic environment using two complementary orbiters. The mission’s delayed arrival, caused by reduced ion engine power, did not remove the mission’s main science plan after arrival. A successful November 2026 insertion would make 2027 the first full year of a new Mercury orbital science campaign.

ESA’s Plato mission is planned for launch in January 2027 on Ariane 6 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. ESA describes Plato as an exoplanet mission that will operate in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 region and observe more than 200,000 stars using 26 cameras. Its main technique is transit photometry, which detects tiny dips in starlight when a planet crosses in front of its host star from the spacecraft’s viewpoint.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is targeted for launch no earlier than September 2026 on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Roman conducts wide-field infrared astronomy, dark energy studies, exoplanet surveys, and coronagraph technology demonstrations. NASA stated on April 23, 2026, that the telescope was on track for delivery to Kennedy Space Center in June 2026 and launch as soon as early September, ahead of the agency’s May 2027 commitment.

National Programs Expand Beyond Their First Lunar Successes

India’s Chandrayaan-4 is planned for the 2027 to 2028 timeframe, according to an Indian Space Research Organisationnotice about lunar sample science planning. ISRO says the mission is intended to return lunar samples to Earth. That makes Chandrayaan-4 a step beyond Chandrayaan-3, which demonstrated India’s ability to land near the Moon’s south polar region in 2023. Sample return requires ascent from the lunar surface, rendezvous or transfer in space, Earth return, and safe reentry.

Chandrayaan-4’s schedule sits partly outside the strict 2027 window because ISRO’s own language gives a 2027 to 2028 timeframe. It still belongs in a review of 2026 and 2027 planning because mission development, science planning, landing-site studies, and sample-handling preparations are already part of India’s exploration program. A 2027 launch would place India in the same two-year window as China’s Chang’e-7 and NASA’s VIPER delivery, but a 2028 launch remains plausible based on the official timeframe.

The India-Japan Chandrayaan-5/LUPEX mission is farther out than most 2026 and 2027 planning, but it shapes decisions now. ISRO says the mission received Government of India financial sanction on March 10, 2025, and that ISRO and JAXA held a technical interface meeting in May 2025. JAXA describes LUPEX as a lunar polar mission in which JAXA provides the rover and ISRO provides the lander, with instruments from NASA and ESA also included.

South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter remains active through 2027 after an extension approved by the Korea AeroSpace Administration and Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Danuri launched in 2022 and entered lunar orbit in December of that year. Although Danuri is not a new launch in 2026 or 2027, its extended operations mean South Korea remains an active lunar exploration participant during this same period.

Russia’s Luna-26 should be treated with caution in any 2026 and 2027 review. NPO Lavochkin’s Luna-26 project page lists Luna-26 as a lunar orbiter in development with a 2027 launch date, but newer public schedule reporting has pointed beyond 2027. Because the requested period is 2026 and 2027, Luna-26 is best described as a formerly 2027-class mission with substantial schedule uncertainty rather than a firm 2027 entry.

Schedule Risk Shapes the 2026 and 2027 Mission Set

Deep-space schedules slip more often than ordinary satellite schedules because planetary missions face strict launch windows, long environmental test campaigns, export controls, planetary protection rules, and destination-specific navigation constraints. A lunar lander can sometimes move by months with manageable mission redesign. A Mars or asteroid mission may face more severe consequences if it misses a favorable departure window. The 2026 and 2027 mission set contains both kinds of risk.

The most schedule-sensitive missions are those tied to multi-body trajectories or planetary arrival. BepiColombo already experienced an 11-month delay after a propulsion issue, yet ESA and JAXA preserved a November 2026 Mercury arrival plan. MMX depends on a Mars transfer opportunity and H3 readiness. Tianwen-2’s sample return timing depends on its operations near Kamoʻoalewa and its planned Earth return geometry. Hera’s arrival shifted earlier because of strong spacecraft performance and revised operations planning.

Lunar missions carry a different risk profile. CLPS missions use new or early-production commercial landers, and the Moon has already exposed weaknesses in propulsion, navigation, landing sensors, and surface operations. A failed commercial landing can still return useful engineering data, but it may also delay payloads, complicate follow-on contracts, and affect customer confidence. The 2026 cluster includes landers from Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, Firefly, and Blue Origin, which makes lunar surface access more diversified than it was during the Apollo or Soviet Luna eras.

Crewed mission schedules carry additional review layers. Artemis III’s 2027 low Earth orbit demonstration does not face the same surface hazards as a lunar landing mission, but it still involves Orion, the Space Launch System, crew safety procedures, commercial lander interfaces, docking operations, and complex mission operations. A successful low Earth orbit demonstration would reduce risk for later lunar landing missions by testing human landing system interfaces without committing astronauts to a lunar descent profile.

Astronomy observatories have their own schedule pressure. Roman and Plato both require precise alignment between spacecraft, instruments, launch vehicle preparation, and ground system readiness. Roman’s September 2026 target is ahead of NASA’s May 2027 commitment, giving the mission some schedule margin. Plato’s January 2027 target depends on Ariane 6 availability and spacecraft completion after environmental testing.

Space Economy Effects Reach Beyond Launch Services

The 2026 and 2027 exploration schedule affects the space economy through procurement, hardware manufacturing, data services, ground stations, mission operations, insurance, workforce demand, and surface systems. Lunar missions create demand for lander structures, propulsion, avionics, thermal systems, communications, payload integration, rover mobility, and mission control. Scientific missions create demand for precision optics, detectors, contamination control, deep-space navigation, and long-duration spacecraft operations.

CLPS has become a commercial testbed for lunar delivery services. NASA buys deliveries, companies sell excess payload space, universities and research organizations gain access to lunar environments, and international customers can fly instruments without building complete spacecraft. Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 2, Intuitive Machines’ IM-3, Astrobotic Griffin-1, and Blue Origin’s Mark 1 lander illustrate different positions in that market, from smaller commercial landers to heavier cargo systems.

Human exploration preparation creates a larger industrial base. Artemis III’s 2027 low Earth orbit demonstration links the Space Launch System, Orion, commercial landers, docking systems, training infrastructure, launch operations, and mission assurance. Even before a surface landing, the program supports suppliers tied to propulsion, cryogenic systems, docking interfaces, guidance and navigation, human-rating work, software verification, and ground support equipment.

Asteroid and planetary missions support a different commercial base. Hera, Tianwen-2, MMX, and BepiColombo require deep-space communications, trajectory design, autonomous navigation, planetary science instruments, thermal protection, sample containment, and long-duration propulsion. These areas do not scale like broadband constellations, but they preserve specialist expertise and support suppliers that can also serve defense and security, civil science, and commercial deep-space services.

Astronomy missions contribute through data rather than surface operations. Roman and Plato will generate large survey data sets that support astrophysics, exoplanet science, cosmology, and archival research. Data processing, cloud storage, machine learning classification, calibration pipelines, and international science teams all become part of the exploration economy. The economic value does not come from selling lunar material or transporting cargo; it comes from scientific data, software infrastructure, instrumentation, and the skilled labor needed to interpret the results.

Missions Outside the Main Count Still Matter

Some missions fall near the edge of a 2026 and 2027 exploration review. NASA’s Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment, known as SunRISE, is listed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for launch in 2026. SunRISE uses an array of six small spacecraft to study solar radio bursts and solar activity. It belongs to heliophysics rather than planetary exploration, but solar activity affects spacecraft operations, astronauts, communications, and power systems, making it relevant to exploration safety.

China’s Xuntian space telescope also sits near the edge of the count because public dates have shifted between late 2026 and 2027 in secondary reporting. The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences describes the China Space Station Telescope as China’s largest optical space facility and says it will address broad astrophysical questions. As of May 27, 2026, it is best treated as a planned Chinese space observatory with timing still subject to confirmation.

ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Mars rover, NASA’s Dragonfly mission to Titan, NASA’s NEO Surveyor mission, JAXA’s DESTINY+ mission, and the United Arab Emirates’ Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt fall mainly outside the requested 2026 and 2027 window. They remain important for the later exploration pipeline, but the stronger launch targets sit in 2028 or beyond. Excluding them from the main mission count keeps the review focused on the two-year period rather than a general future mission list.

Space station missions also require careful classification. China’s Shenzhou missions, India’s Gaganyaan test program, NASA commercial crew flights, cargo flights, and private space station demonstrations all support human spaceflight capability. Yet many are low Earth orbit operations rather than destination exploration missions. They can support exploration readiness, but they are not direct lunar, planetary, asteroid, or astronomical exploration missions unless their payloads or objectives specifically serve those functions.

Global Space Exploration Missions 2026 and 2027 Show a New Mission Mix

Global space exploration missions 2026 and 2027 do not form a single race with one finish line. The United States is building a lunar delivery and human-system testing chain, China is advancing lunar south pole operations and asteroid sample return, Europe is executing planetary defense and exoplanet missions, Japan is preparing a Mars moon sample return, India is developing lunar sample return, and South Korea is extending lunar orbital operations. These efforts overlap, compete, and sometimes cooperate.

The strongest shared theme is the Moon’s south pole. NASA, China, India, Japan, commercial lander companies, and international payload partners all see polar terrain as scientifically valuable because it preserves ancient impact history and may contain water ice in cold shadowed areas. The practical value of that water remains unproven at industrial scale, but the scientific value of direct measurements is already enough to drive missions.

The second theme is sample return. Tianwen-2 and Chandrayaan-4 show that sample return is no longer limited to the United States, Soviet heritage missions, and Japan. Sample return demands many of the same skills needed for future Mars sample return and crewed deep-space logistics: surface acquisition, sealed containment, ascent, orbital operations, Earth return, and recovery.

The third theme is observatory scale. Roman, Plato, and potentially Xuntian all move astronomical exploration into a data-rich period built around large surveys rather than single-object observing alone. Their value depends on instruments, calibration, long mission lifetimes, open data policies, and science teams capable of comparing billions of measurements with ground-based surveys.

Summary

The 2026 and 2027 exploration schedule is unusually dense because many missions delayed from earlier years now overlap with new lunar and planetary plans. The Moon dominates the manifest, but it does not monopolize it. Mercury orbit insertion, Mars moon sample return launch, asteroid sample return operations, planetary defense follow-up, exoplanet searches, and infrared astronomy all sit in the same two-year window.

The most reliable way to read the schedule is by separating firm near-term targets from broader planning windows. Roman, Hera, BepiColombo, Plato, MMX, Chang’e-7, Artemis III, Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance, IM-3, Griffin-1, and Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 2 have identifiable 2026 or 2027 milestones. Chandrayaan-4 belongs in the review because ISRO gives a 2027 to 2028 timeframe, but it should be described with that date range. Luna-26 should be treated as uncertain because public sources differ, and newer reporting points beyond 2027.

The larger pattern is a move from exploration as isolated missions to exploration as infrastructure testing. Landers, rovers, observatories, deep-space orbiters, sample return systems, autonomous navigation, and commercial delivery services now reinforce each other. Success in 2026 and 2027 will not be measured only by launches. It will be measured by arrivals, landings, returned samples, first light for telescopes, reliable surface operations, and the ability of agencies and companies to turn one mission into the next.

Appendix: Useful Books Available on Amazon

• A Man on the Moon
• The Case for Mars
• The Right Stuff
• The Planets
• The Overview Effect

Appendix: Top Questions Answered in This Article

Which Space Exploration Missions Are Planned for 2026 and 2027?

The main planned missions include NASA’s Roman Space Telescope, ESA’s Plato, ESA’s Hera arrival at Didymos, ESA/JAXA’s BepiColombo arrival at Mercury, JAXA’s MMX launch, China’s Chang’e-7, China’s Tianwen-2 sample return operations, NASA’s Artemis III low Earth orbit demonstration, and several lunar lander missions under or adjacent to CLPS.

Which 2026 Mission Is Most Important for Lunar Exploration?

No single 2026 lunar mission defines the entire year. China’s Chang’e-7 is important because it targets the lunar south pole with a multi-element robotic mission. NASA’s CLPS landers and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance are also important because they test commercial delivery, payload deployment, and surface systems tied to longer-term Artemis planning.

Is Artemis III Still a 2027 Moon Landing Mission?

NASA’s 2026 Artemis update changed Artemis III into a 2027 low Earth orbit demonstration focused on commercial lunar lander rendezvous and docking. That makes the mission a human exploration systems test rather than a lunar surface landing. Later Artemis missions are expected to carry the next crewed lunar landing effort.

What Is the Main Goal of Chang’e-7?

Chang’e-7 is planned to survey the lunar south pole’s environment and resources. The mission is expected to use an orbiter, lander, rover, and hopping probe. Its work is tied to water-related science, polar terrain assessment, and China’s broader lunar exploration program.

Why Does MMX Matter?

JAXA’s MMX mission targets Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars. Its planned sample return from Phobos could help scientists test competing theories about whether the Martian moons are captured asteroids, impact debris, or products of another formation pathway.

What Will BepiColombo Do at Mercury?

BepiColombo will place two spacecraft into Mercury orbit. ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter will study the planet’s surface, interior, exosphere, and composition. JAXA’s Mio orbiter will focus on Mercury’s magnetic and plasma environment near the Sun.

Why Is Hera Important for Planetary Defense?

Hera examines the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system after NASA’s DART impact. Its measurements should help scientists understand how a kinetic impact changed Dimorphos and how asteroid deflection could be planned more reliably for future planetary defense needs.

What Is Roman Designed to Study?

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is designed for wide-field infrared astronomy, dark energy research, exoplanet studies, and coronagraph technology demonstration. Its wide survey capability will complement other space telescopes and ground-based observatories by covering large areas of sky.

What Is Plato Designed to Study?

ESA’s Plato mission will search for exoplanets, especially planets around bright stars, using a multi-camera transit survey. The mission is designed to support planet detection and stellar characterization, helping scientists compare planetary systems with the Solar System.

Why Are Many 2026 and 2027 Dates Uncertain?

Exploration mission dates can change because spacecraft tests, launch vehicles, planetary windows, software validation, and mission assurance reviews can expose problems late in development. A date described as planned, targeted, scheduled, or no earlier than should not be treated as a completed fact until the mission launches or reaches its destination.

Appendix: Glossary of Key Terms

Artemis

Artemis is NASA’s Moon-to-Mars human exploration program. It includes the Space Launch System rocket, Orion crew spacecraft, lunar surface systems, commercial landers, spacesuits, rovers, and international partnerships intended to support human operations at and near the Moon.

Commercial Lunar Payload Services

Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, is NASA’s procurement approach for buying lunar delivery services from commercial providers. Companies develop and operate landers, and NASA pays to fly science instruments, technology demonstrations, and exploration payloads to the Moon.

Exoplanet

An exoplanet is a planet outside the Solar System. Missions such as Plato and Roman study exoplanets by observing effects on starlight, such as transits, microlensing events, or direct imaging demonstrations that block a star’s light.

Hopping Probe

A hopping probe is a small robotic spacecraft or surface vehicle designed to move by short powered hops rather than by wheels. On the Moon, this can help explore terrain that may be difficult for a conventional rover to reach.

Human Landing System

A human landing system is a spacecraft designed to carry astronauts between orbit and a planetary or lunar surface. In Artemis planning, commercial human landing systems are central to future crewed lunar landings after interface and docking demonstrations.

Lunar South Pole

The lunar south pole is a region of high scientific and operational interest because some permanently shadowed areas may preserve water ice and other volatiles. The terrain is difficult, with extreme lighting contrasts, cold traps, slopes, and communications constraints.

Planetary Defense

Planetary defense is the field focused on finding, tracking, characterizing, and potentially deflecting asteroids or comets that could threaten Earth. Missions such as DART and Hera provide data on whether spacecraft impacts can change asteroid motion predictably.

Sample Return

Sample return refers to collecting material from another celestial body and bringing it back to Earth. Returned samples can be studied in laboratories with instruments too large, sensitive, or complex to send on spacecraft.

Sun-Earth L2

Sun-Earth L2 is a gravitational balance region about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth away from the Sun. Space telescopes often use orbits near this region because it provides stable thermal conditions and a broad view of space.

Transit Photometry

Transit photometry detects planets by measuring small dips in a star’s brightness as a planet crosses in front of it. Repeated dips can reveal a planet’s orbital period, size, and relationship to its host star.