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Our Solar System has 1 star our Sun, 8 Planets, 5 Dwarf Planets, over 3000 Comets, 550,000 asteroids and our nearest star is Proxima Centauri.
Mercury: Closest planet to the Sun. Bepicolombo to enter orbit on November 21, 2026.
Venus: Very hot planet. No active spacecraft currently in orbit.
Earth:
– NASA’s Parker Solar Probe closest ever spacecraft to the Sun – mission extended till 2029.
– Artemis III will no longer land astronauts on the Moon. Instead, it is redesigned as a crewed demonstration flight in low Earth orbit (LEO). Launch in 2027.
Moon:
– China’s next lunar mission Chang’e 7 is targeting lunar south pole. To launch late 2027.
– SpaceX aiming for crewed moon landings and operational Starship missions perhaps in 2028.
– Chandrayaan-4: India’s 4th lunar mission will launch in 2027-2028 (sample-return mission)
Near-Earth Asteroids: OSIRIS-REx extended as OSIRIS-APEX to study asteroid Apophis in 2029.
Mars: 2 moons – Deimos & Phobos.
– NASA Perseverance Mars Rover at present actively exploring Jezero Crater.
– Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission to explore Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos and return a surface sample from Phobos to Earth in 2031. Led by JAXA is scheduled to launch on October 20, 2026.
Asteroid Belt: Dawn Spacecraft was the last spacecraft to orbit Dwarf Planet Ceres.
Jupiter: Juno in currently in orbit. Europa Clipper is NASA’s next big mission. Destination: Europa Moon. Planned to enter Jupiter orbit in 2030.
Saturn: NASA’s Dragonfly Mission is scheduled to launch in July 2028 and arrive at Saturn’s moon Titan in 2034.
Uranus and Neptune – no missions
Pluto: has 5 moons. New Horizons flew past in 2015. New Horizons will be 100 AU from the Sun in 2038.
Vehicles visiting the International Space Station:
Crew: Russian Soyuz Spacecraft, Dragon & Shenzou.
Cargo: Progress Spacecraft, SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, Cygnus.
Future cargo carrier: Dream Chaser.
Other Crewed Vehicles: CST-100 & Orion (Artemis), Starship HLS & Gaganyaan.
Famous Rockets: Proton Rocket, Soyuz Rocket, Ariane 6 (Ariane 5 no longer active), Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Atlas V, Vulcan Centaur and Electron by Rocket Lab.
Other rockets: Space Launch System – next launch 2027, Starship – next launch 2026, New Glenn – next launch late 2026.
X-37B – USA’s Secret Spaceplane OTV-8 launched August 21, 2025. Return to Earth date unknown!!!
Did You Know?
– NASA James Webb Space Telescope – the largest and most powerful infrared space observatory ever launched. Status: Operational. Located near 2nd Lagrange Point.
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