page_title: List of active Solar System probes
section_title: Retired missions
hierarchical_section_title: List of active Solar System probes / Retired missions
caption_attribution_description: English: Original Caption Released with Image: This is an artists concept of Cassini during the Saturn Orbit Insertion (SOI) maneuver, just after the main engine has begun firing. The spacecraft is moving out of the plane of the page and to the right (firing to reduce its spacecraft velocity with respect to Saturn) and has just crossed the ring plane. The SOI maneuver, which is approximately 90 minutes long, will allow Cassini to be captured by Saturn's gravity into a five-month orbit. Cassini's close proximity to the planet after the maneuver offers a unique opportunity to observe Saturn and its rings at extremely high resolution. Suomi: Ai vittu mun Cassini.
context_page_description: This is a list of active space probes which have escaped Earth orbit. It includes lunar space probes, but does not include space probes orbiting at the Sun–Earth Lagrangian points. A craft is deemed "active" if it is still able to transmit usable data to Earth.
  The craft are further grouped by mission status – "en route", "mission in progress" or "mission complete" – based on their primary mission. For example, though Voyager 1 is still contactable en route to the heliopause, it is listed as "mission complete" because its primary task of studying Jupiter and Saturn has been accomplished. Once a probe has reached its first primary target, it is no longer listed as "en route" whether or not further travel is involved.
context_section_description: Pioneer 6
  Mission: measurements of the solar wind, solar magnetic field and cosmic rays. Oldest functioning probe (if still operating). Contact was last attempted 8 December 2000 to celebrate its 35th anniversary, and the attempt was successful.
  Launched: 16 December 1965
  Destination: heliocentric orbit
  Institution:  NASA
  Mission completion: ?
  Current trajectory: heliocentric orbit
  Pioneer 7
  Mission:  measurements of the solar wind, solar magnetic field and cosmic rays. Last contacted 31 March 1995; no attempt has been made since, and this probe may or may not be operational.
  Launched: 17 August 1966
  Destination: heliocentric orbit
  Institution:  NASA
  Mission completion: ?
  Current trajectory: heliocentric orbit
  Pioneer 8
  Mission: measurements of the solar wind, solar magnetic field and cosmic rays. Last contacted on 22 August 1996; no attempt has been made since, and this probe may or may not be operational.
  Launched: 8 November 1967
  Destination: heliocentric orbit
  Institution:  NASA
  Mission completion: ?
  Current trajectory: heliocentric orbit
  ICE
  Mission: studying the interaction between the solar wind and (1) the Earth's magnetosphere, (2) the tail of comet Giacobini-Zinner, (3) the tail of Halley's Comet. Contact with the probe was lost on 16 September 2014. It is unknown whether contact can be reestablished because the probe's exact orbit is uncertain.
  Launched: 12 August 1978
  Destination: halo orbit around Earth-Sun Lagrangian point L₁
  Institution:  NASA
  Mission completion: 1997
  Current trajectory: heliocentric orbit
  Giotto
  Mission: flyby and observation of Halley's Comet and Comet Grigg-Skjellerup to capture scientific data and images of the nucleus. The multicolor camera was destroyed in the encounter with Halley, but the probe remained otherwise functional for the second encounter.
  Launched: 2 July 1985
  Destination: Comet Halley
  Arrival: 14 March 1986
  Institution:  ESA
  Mission completion: 14 March 1986 (Halley), 10 July 1992 (Grigg-Skjellerup)
  Current trajectory: heliocentric orbit
  Genesis
  Mission: solar wind sample return
  Launched: 8 August 2001
  Destination: halo orbit around Sun-Earth Lagrangian point L₁
  Arrival: 16 November 2001
  Institution:  NASA
  Mission completion: sample capsule returned to Earth 8 September 2004; parachutes failed to open, some samples contaminated
  Current trajectory (spacecraft bus): heliocentric orbit near Sun-Earth L₂ point
  Cassini–Huygens
  Mission: Cassini orbiter studying Saturn and its moons after passing Venus and Jupiter; Huygens landing probe investigating Titan.  Cassini primarily investigated Saturn's rings, its magnetosphere, and the geologic composition of its satellites.
  Launched: 15 October 1997
  Destination: Saturn
  Arrival: 1 July 2004 (Saturn), 14 January 2005 (Titan)
  Crashed: 15 September 2017
  Institution: collaboration between  NASA,  ESA and  ASI
caption: Artist's concept of Cassini's orbit insertion around Saturn
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