Curated playlist
Jet Propulsion Laboratory space probes
- Dawn (spacecraft)NASA cancelled the Dawn spacecraft twice before it ever launched. It later orbited two worlds, Vesta and Ceres.
- Voyager 1Voyager 1's rocket shut down early, leaving its upper stage only 3.4 seconds from running dry.
- Voyager 2Voyager 2 launched in 1977 to visit four giant planets in one trip. A rare planet alignment made that tour possible.
- Cassini–HuygensCassini-Huygens dove into Saturn's atmosphere on purpose in 2017. It kept Earth microbes off possibly living moons.
- Viking programViking's Mars life tests gave one yes and two no answers. The question remains unresolved.
- Galileo (spacecraft)NASA deliberately crashed the Galileo spacecraft into Jupiter in 2003. The goal was to protect the moon Europa.
- Mars Exploration RoverOpportunity, a Mars rover built to drive 600 meters, ended up covering more than 45 km. It lasted nearly fifteen years.
- Stardust (spacecraft)Dust from Comet Wild 2 held minerals that form only near the Sun. Stardust brought the grains back to Earth.
- Rosetta (spacecraft)Philae, Rosetta's comet lander, bounced twice after its anchoring harpoons failed to fire.
- Deep Impact (spacecraft)Deep Impact fired a copper-tipped probe into comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005.