Points of Light to Places We Know

For most of history, the planets were wandering points of light. Robotic spacecraft changed that. This shirt carries nine of the explorers that turned distant worlds into real places, so let's take the tour from the Sun outward.

Mercury

• MESSENGER · launched 2004In March 2011 it became the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury.
• It mapped the entire planet and found evidence of water ice hidden in permanently shadowed craters near Mercury's poles, on the planet closest to the Sun.
• Out of fuel, it ended its mission in April 2015 by crashing into the surface it had spent four years studying.

Venus

• Pioneer Venus Orbiter · launched 1978It reached Venus in December 1978 and used radar to map most of the planet's surface through its thick clouds.
• It studied the Venusian atmosphere for nearly 14 years before burning up in that atmosphere in 1992.

The Moon

• Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter · launched 2009It has mapped the Moon in extraordinary detail and is still at work today.
• It photographed the Apollo landing sites from orbit, revealing the descent stages left behind and the trails the astronauts walked.
• Its maps are helping NASA choose where Artemis astronauts will land.

Mars

• Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter · launched 2005Its HiRISE camera has captured the most detailed views of Mars ever taken from orbit, sharp enough to pick out objects about a meter across.
• It also works as a communications relay, passing data from the rovers on the surface back to Earth.

Jupiter & Europa

• Galileo · launched 1989Carried to orbit by Space Shuttle Atlantis, it became the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter in 1995 and dropped a probe into the planet's atmosphere.
• It found strong evidence of a salty ocean beneath Europa's icy crust. In 2003 NASA steered it into Jupiter so it could never contaminate that ocean.
• Juno · launched 2011Arriving in 2016, the solar-powered probe has been peering beneath Jupiter's clouds to study the giant planet's interior, gravity and magnetic field.
• Europa Clipper · launched 2024The next great explorer lifted off from Kennedy Space Center and arrives at Jupiter in 2030. It will make dozens of close flybys of Europa to learn whether that hidden ocean could support life.

Saturn

• Cassini-Huygens · launched 1997It reached Saturn in 2004 and spent 13 years exploring the planet, its rings and its moons.
• In January 2005 its European-built Huygens probe landed on Titan, the most distant landing ever made.
• Cassini discovered geysers of water ice erupting from the little moon Enceladus.
• In September 2017 it ended with a "Grand Finale" plunge into Saturn's atmosphere.

Uranus & Neptune

• Voyager 2 · launched 1977Launched from Cape Canaveral, it is still the only spacecraft ever to visit Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989).
• In 2018 it crossed into interstellar space, and it has kept talking to Earth for nearly half a century.

Why It Matters

From the scorching heat of Mercury to the icy moons of the outer planets, these robotic pioneers carried our curiosity billions of miles into the unknown. Many of them launched from right here on the Space Coast.