Beyond Earth orbit, several dozen spacecraft are working right now: watching the Sun, mapping the Moon, crossing to Jupiter, chasing asteroids and drifting out of the Solar System. This is a destination-by-destination list of the active deep space and interplanetary missions, from NASA, ESA, JAXA, China, India and others, with launch dates and status as of our last review.
Read the dates. Statuses below reflect public agency information as of the review date at the bottom of this page. Extended missions are periodically re-approved or ended by budget decisions, so check the agency's own mission page if you need the live status of one spacecraft.
The Sun
- Parker Solar Probe (NASA, launched 2018) — the closest any spacecraft has come to the Sun. Since December 2024 its closest passes take it about 6.1 million km from the solar surface, inside the corona.
- Solar Orbiter (ESA/NASA, 2020) — tilting its orbit to give the first clear views of the Sun's poles.
- SOHO (ESA/NASA, 1995) — at Sun–Earth L1 for three decades, still a mainstay of space-weather monitoring and the most prolific comet discoverer in history.
- Aditya-L1 (ISRO, 2023) — India's first solar observatory, in a halo orbit around L1.
- IMAP (NASA, 2025) — launched in September 2025 to L1 to map the boundary of the heliosphere, sharing its rocket with NASA's Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA's SWFO-L1 space-weather satellite.
More in The Sun.
Mercury and Venus
- BepiColombo (ESA/JAXA, 2018) — two orbiters travelling together to Mercury, with orbit insertion planned for November 2026 after a thruster problem in 2024 added about a year to the cruise.
- Venus has no active orbiter. JAXA ended its Akatsuki mission in 2025 after contact was lost in 2024. NASA's VERITAS and DAVINCI and ESA's EnVision are planned for the 2030s, though the NASA pair have faced budget uncertainty. See Venus.
The Moon
- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA, 2009) — the workhorse lunar mapper, used to select Artemis landing regions.
- Chandrayaan-2 orbiter (ISRO, 2019) — still in lunar orbit after its lander was lost in 2019.
- Danuri / KPLO (South Korea, 2022) — Korea's first lunar orbiter, carrying NASA's ShadowCam to image inside permanently shadowed craters.
- Queqiao-2 (China, 2024) — a relay satellite serving China's far-side and south-pole missions.
- THEMIS-ARTEMIS P1 and P2 (NASA) — two former Earth-magnetosphere probes moved into lunar orbit in 2011.
Recent landers worked only for days or weeks: Firefly's Blue Ghost 1 landed on 2 March 2025 and completed its planned two-week mission, and Intuitive Machines' IM-2 landed on its side near the south pole on 6 March 2025 and ended operations the next day. China's next lunar mission, Chang'e 7, has been targeted for around 2026. See The Moon and Artemis II.
Mars
Two rovers and up to seven orbiters; full details on Current Mars Missions.
Asteroids and Comets
- Psyche (NASA, 2023) — cruising on solar-electric propulsion to the metal-rich asteroid 16 Psyche, arriving in 2029. It also carried the Deep Space Optical Communications laser experiment.
- Lucy (NASA, 2021) — touring asteroids. It flew past Dinkinesh in 2023 and Donaldjohanson in April 2025, and reaches the Jupiter Trojans in 2027.
- OSIRIS-APEX (NASA) — the spacecraft that returned samples of Bennu in September 2023, now redirected to asteroid Apophis, which passes very close to Earth on 13 April 2029.
- Hera (ESA, 2024) — heading to the Didymos–Dimorphos pair to measure the result of NASA's 2022 DART impact; it flew past Mars in March 2025 and is due to arrive in late 2026.
- Tianwen-2 (China, May 2025) — China's first asteroid sample return, aimed at the small near-Earth asteroid Kamo'oalewa (arrival planned for 2026, samples back in 2027), then on to comet 311P.
- Hayabusa2 (JAXA) — after returning samples of Ryugu in 2020, on an extended mission to visit asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031.
More in Near-Earth Asteroids and Comets and the Kuiper Belt.
Jupiter
- Juno (NASA, 2011) — in polar orbit around Jupiter since 2016. Its extended mission was approved through September 2025; whether it continues beyond that has depended on NASA budget decisions, so check NASA for its current status.
- JUICE (ESA, 2023) — cruising with Earth, Moon and Venus gravity assists; arrives at Jupiter in July 2031 and enters orbit around Ganymede in 2034.
- Europa Clipper (NASA, October 2024) — flew past Mars in March 2025 and returns past Earth in late 2026 before arriving at Jupiter in April 2030 for dozens of close Europa flybys.
More in The Jupiter System and Europa.
Saturn and Beyond
No spacecraft has been at Saturn since Cassini ended in 2017. NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft is due to launch in 2028 and reach Titan in 2034 (see Saturn and Titan).
- New Horizons (NASA, 2006) — flew past Pluto in 2015 and Arrokoth in 2019; now more than 60 AU from the Sun in the Kuiper Belt.
- Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 (NASA, 1977) — both in interstellar space. Voyager 1 is roughly 170 AU from the Sun and is expected to reach one light-day from Earth around November 2026; Voyager 2 is more than 140 AU out. Since 2024 NASA has been switching off instruments one by one to stretch their dwindling nuclear power.
Observatories Beyond Low Earth Orbit
- James Webb Space Telescope (NASA/ESA/CSA, 2021) at Sun–Earth L2.
- Euclid (ESA, 2023) at L2, mapping dark matter and dark energy across a third of the sky.
- TESS (NASA, 2018) in a high Earth orbit, finding exoplanets around nearby stars.
- SPHEREx (NASA, March 2025) in low Earth orbit, making an all-sky spectral map.
ESA's Gaia finished its science observations and was switched off in March 2025. The next big NASA observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, has a launch commitment of no later than May 2027, with NASA saying it could be ready as early as autumn 2026. See Lagrange Points for why so many observatories live at L1 and L2.
How We Talk to Them
Nearly every mission on this page depends on a handful of giant dish antennas: NASA's Deep Space Network, ESA's Estrack and China's deep-space stations. Demand from new missions keeps growing faster than antenna time. See The Deep Space Network.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many deep space probes are active right now?
Several dozen spacecraft operate beyond low Earth orbit, including solar observatories, lunar orbiters, Mars orbiters and rovers, asteroid missions, Jupiter missions, New Horizons and the two Voyagers. The exact number changes as missions launch and end.
What are NASA's current deep space missions?
They include Parker Solar Probe, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Mars rovers and orbiters, Psyche, Lucy, OSIRIS-APEX, Europa Clipper, New Horizons, Voyager 1 and 2, and the James Webb Space Telescope. Juno's status beyond its 2025 extension depended on budget decisions.
Which ESA deep space missions are active?
ESA's active deep space missions include Solar Orbiter, SOHO (with NASA), BepiColombo (with JAXA), Mars Express, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, JUICE, Hera, Euclid and its share of the James Webb Space Telescope.
Is anything at Saturn now?
No. Cassini ended in 2017. The next mission, NASA's Dragonfly to Titan, is planned to launch in 2028 and arrive in 2034.