New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra, S/2011 P 1, and S/2012 P 1, with an estimated arrival date at the Pluto–Charon system of July 14, 2015. NASA may then also attempt flybys of one or more other Kuiper belt objects, if a suitable target can be located.

New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006, directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory with an Earth-relative velocity of about 16.26 km/s (58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph) after its last engine was shut down. Thus, the spacecraft left Earth at the greatest-ever launch speed for a man-made object. It flew by the orbit of Mars on April 7, 2006, Jupiter on February 28, 2007, the orbit of Saturn on June 8, 2008; and the orbit of Uranus on March 18, 2011. As of February 2012, its distance to Pluto is less than 10 AU (more than 20 AU from Earth).

Cassini–Huygens is a NASA-ESA-ASI robotic spacecraft sent to the Saturn system. It has studied the planet and its many natural satellites since arriving there in 2004, also observing Jupiter, the Heliosphere, and testing the theory of relativity. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter (called Cassini) and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan (called Huygens), which entered and landed on Titan in 2005. Cassini is the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit, and its mission is ongoing as of 2012.

It was launched on October 15, 1997 and entered into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004, after an interplanetary voyage which included flybys of Earth, Venus, and Jupiter.

On December 25, 2004, Huygens separated from the orbiter at approximately 02:00 UTC. It reached Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005, when it entered Titan's atmosphere and descended downward to the surface. It successfully returned data to Earth, using the orbiter as a relay. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System.

Sixteen European countries and the United States make up the team responsible for designing, building, flying and collecting data from the Cassini orbiter and Huygens probe. The mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the United States. Huygens was developed by the European Space Research and Technology Centre, whose prime contractor was Alcatel of France. Equipment and instruments for the probe were supplied by many countries. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) provided the Cassini probe's high-gain radio antenna, and a compact and lightweight radar, which serves as a synthetic aperture radar, a radar altimeter, and a radiometer.

The Intrepid 1U CubeSat Suite represents a compact and capable complete 1U system.

Tyvak have bundled the Tyvak™ Intrepid System Board with a custom UHF Communication System (70cm Amateur Band), Side Panels with Sensors, Torquers, Solar Cells, and a Monopole Antenna, a Battery Module, and a structure that makes optimal use of limited volume. The highly integrated nature of the design enables mission concepts previously unfeasible in only a 1U volume, passing launch savings to the end user. With a custom Embedded Linux platform interfacing all the subsystem components, developers can hit the ground running from day one in a familiar development environment.

This product is part of the “Pico-Class” products provided by the company Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems LLC.

The “Pico-Class” products focuses on providing core capabilities that represent the smallest packaging solution.

The Intrepid Embedded Linux System Board reimagines the CubeSat, providing capabilities integrated as a single board solution. The design fully conforms to the CubeSat specification, and solves many of the design challenges developers face by including the Electrical Power System, Command and Data Handling System, a custom Embedded Linux OS with device drivers already in place, and post-deployment power-up interfaces. Standard Interfaces include two ultra-low profile daughter boards for custom communication systems, battery modules, or payload electronics, and payload interface connectors providing power and data. Two high-pin count umbilical connectors provide complete debugging access to data lines and peripherals provided to the payload even when fully integrated with the most complex systems.

This product is part of the “Pico-Class” products provided by the company Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems LLC.

The “Pico-Class” products focuses on providing core capabilities that represent the smallest packaging solution.

Blue Origin is a privately funded aerospace company.

Initially focused on sub-orbital spaceflight, the company has built and flown a testbed of its New Shepard spacecraft design at their Culberson County, Texas facility.

The company was awarded a contract in 2009 by NASA under the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program for development of concepts and technologies to support future human spaceflight operations.

The Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie (Faculty of Physics and Astronomy) is the department of physics and astronomy of the  Ruhr-Universität Bochum university, one of the biggest university of Germany.

The AIRUB (Astronomisches Institut der Ruhr-Universität Bochum)  is the astronomy department of the  Ruhr-Universität Bochum university, one of the biggest university of Germany.

The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly named as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), is an infrared space observatory launched in 2003. It is the fourth and final of the NASA Great Observatories program.

The planned mission period was to be 2.5 years with a pre-launch expectation that the mission could extend to five or slightly more years until the onboard liquid helium supply was exhausted. This occurred on 15 May 2009. Without liquid helium to cool the telescope to the very cold temperatures needed to operate, most instruments are no longer usable. However, the two shortest wavelength modules of the IRAC camera are still operable with the same sensitivity as before thecryogen was exhausted, and will continue to be used in the Spitzer Warm Mission.

It follows a rather unusual orbit, heliocentric instead of geocentric, trailing and drifting away from Earth's orbit at approximately 0.1 astronomical unit per year (a so-called "earth-trailing" orbit). The primary mirror is 85 centimetres (33 in) in diameter, f/12 and made of beryllium and was cooled to 5.5 K (−449.77 °F). The satellite contains three instruments that allowed it to perform astronomical imaging and photometry from 3 to 180 micrometers, spectroscopy from 5 to 40 micrometers, and spectrophotometry from 5 to 100 micrometers.

IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of the Greenland and Antarctic ice.

Data collected during IceBridge will help scientists bridge the gap in polar observations between NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) -- in orbit since 2003 -- and ICESat-2, planned for early 2016. ICESat stopped collecting science data in 2009, making IceBridge critical for ensuring a continuous series of observations.

IceBridge will use airborne instruments to map Arctic and Antarctic areas once a year. IceBridge flights are conducted in March-May over Greenland and in October-November over Antarctica. Other smaller airborne surveys around the world are also part of the IceBridge campaign.

ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2), part of NASA's Earth Observing System, is a planned (year of writting: 2012) satellitemission for measuring ice sheet mass elevation, sea ice freeboard as well as land topography and vegetation characteristics. ICESat-2 is a planned follow-on to the ICESat mission. It will be launched in 2016 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California into a near-circular, near-polar orbit with an altitude of approximately 496 km. It is being designed to operate for 3 years, and will carry enough propellant for 7 years.

The ICESat-2 mission is designed to provide elevation data needed to determine ice sheet mass balance as well as vegetation coverage information. It provides topography and vegetation data around the globe, in addition to the polar-specific coverage over the polar regions.

The ICESat-2 project is being managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The sole instrument is being designed and built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and the bus is being provided by Orbital Sciences Corporation.