National Geographic UK - July 2019

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: 1 / 236

SKYLAB: 1 / 9 SPACE SHUTTLE: 135 missions/ 355 crew and passengers

SALYUT: 6 space stations/ 48 visitors U.S.S.R.

U.S.S.R./ Russia

U.S. U.S. China

TIANGONG: 2 / 7

April

2019

1980 1990 2000 2010

Duration of program Origin

1971

MIR: 1 / 104

Amalthea

3

Daphnis

Pan

Atlas

2

Prometheus

2

Pandora

2

Epimetheus

2

Janus

2

Methone

Pallene

Europa

5

Callisto

4

Io

5

Thalassa

Naiad

Perdita

Thebe

Metis

Adrastea

Phoebe

2

Dione

3

Rhea

3

Tethys

3

Enceladus

3

Mimas

3

Rosalind

Belinda

Desdemona

Cordelia

Ophelia

Bianca

Triton

Nereid

Proteus

Larissa

Despina

Galatea

Telesto

2

Calypso

2

Helene

3

Miranda

Oberon

Ariel

Umbriel

Titania

Puck

Portia

Juliet

Cressida

Charon

Styx

Nix

Kerberos

Hydra

Phobos

6

Deimos

Ganymede

5

Titan

4

Hyperion

3

Iapetus

3

Jupiter

8

Saturn

4

Mars

30

Mars

30

Asteroids

11

Moon

25

Moon

25

Neptune

1

Uranus

1

Pluto

1

Ultima

Thule

1

Halley’s

comet

5

Comets

11

ASTEROID BELT OUTER SOLAR SYTEM

SATURN SOJOURN

Few missions have visited

the planet, but Cassini

arrived in 2004 and

explored for 13 years; data

are still being processed.

HALLEY’S COMET

On an eccentric orbit that

travels past Neptune, Halley

returns to the inner solar system

every 76 years. Various craft

studied its last visit, in 1986.

TURBULENT JUPITER

The first missions to the planet

revealed a ball of violent,

swirling gases. Some of Jupiter’s

moons have been studied for

the potential to harbor life.

THE MOON AND ITS PROSPECTS

Space companies are determining

whether there’s money to be made

on Earth’s nearest neighbor through

projects like mining, commercial

travel, and colonization.

ASTEROID ENCOUNTERS

Filled with protoplanetary bodies,

the asteroid belt holds clues to how

our solar system and planets formed.

Probes have visited and collected

samples from asteroids.

KUIPER BELT

Reaching the most distant bodies

in our solar system, the New

Horizons spacecraft was the first

to visit Pluto; it then flew on to

explore Ultima Thule.

LIVING AND WORKING WHILE ORBITING EARTH

International crews have continued to conduct research on Earth-orbiting stations, while

for 30 years NASA’s reusable space shuttles carried crew and cargo on a variety of missions.

NGM ART. MATTHEW TWOMBLY; ALEXANDER STEGMAIER. SOURCES: NASA; ASIF SIDDIQI, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY;

JONATHAN MCDOWELL, HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS; USGS ASTROGEOLOGY SCIENCE CENTER

ed the moon in 1972.

h stations orbiting Earth

ther into space to take

solar system up close.