Missions
Voyages of Exploration
As spaceflight pioneers with six decades of experience, APL has designed, built, and operated and led more than 70 spacecraft missions — including some of NASA’s most innovative and challenging missions over the past two decades.
IMAP Interstellar Medium
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.
Learn more about IMAP
Europa Clipper Outer Moons
A mission to survey Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and determine whether it has conditions suitable to harboring life.
Learn more about Europa Clipper
Dragonfly Outer Moons
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.
Learn more about Dragonfly
EZIE Earth
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.
Learn more about EZIE
Lunar Vertex Moon
Lunar Vertex will be the first mission to carry out a comprehensive study of lunar magnetic anomaly and the associated swirl and mini-magnetosphere.
Learn more about Lunar Vertex
Cislunar Science and Technology
APL is making critical contributions to the development of cislunar infrastructure to ensure our nation’s security interests are protected, support development of a sustainable cislunar presence, and advance pioneering science.
Learn more about Cislunar Science and Technology
Parker Solar Probe Sun and Solar Wind
Parker Solar Probe dives closer to the Sun than humanity has ever ventured to unlock the mysteries of our nearest star.
Learn more about Parker Solar Probe
Balloon Programs Interstellar Medium
APL balloon missions and instruments observe planetary targets and the interstellar medium, and conduct other space science investigations.
Learn more about Balloon Programs
STEREO Sun and Solar Wind
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.
Learn more about STEREO
New Horizons Pluto, Kuiper Belt Objects, and Comets
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.
Learn more about New Horizons
TIMED Earth
For nearly two decades, the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) mission has explored the gateway between Earth and space.
Learn more about TIMED
ACE Sun and Solar Wind
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.
Learn more about ACE
DART Asteroids
The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) was NASA’s first planetary defense test mission.
Learn more about DART
Van Allen Probes Earth
A mission to explore Earth’s harsh radiation belt environment and the dynamics of geomagnetic storms.
Learn more about Van Allen Probes
MESSENGER Terrestrial Planets
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.
Learn more about MESSENGER
NEAR Asteroids
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.
Learn more about NEAR
DARC Demonstration Earth
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.
Learn more about DARC Demonstration