Science, Exploration, and Security Missions
As spaceflight pioneers with six decades of experience, Johns Hopkins APL has designed, built, and operated and led more than 70 spacecraft missions — including some of NASA and the Department of Defense’s most innovative and challenging missions over the past two decades.
Future
Now in development, these game-changing missions are poised to reshape how we think about exploring worlds and phenomena across the solar system.
![IMAP Spacecraft rendering](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-IMAP.jpg)
IMAP Interstellar Medium
![Artist's rendering of Europa Clipper](/sites/default/files/2022-12/IMG_Projects_Europa-Clipper.jpg)
Europa Clipper Outer Moons
![Artist's rendering of Dragonfly](/sites/default/files/2023-12/IMG-Projects-Dragonfly-Dec2023.jpg)
Dragonfly Outer Moons
![EZIE satellites](/sites/default/files/2023-09/IMG_Projects_EZIE_Satellites.jpg)
EZIE Earth
![Lunar Swirls](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-Lunar-Vertex.jpg)
Lunar Vertex Moon
Present
These missions, dispatched to destinations from the Sun to Pluto and beyond, are sending home data that are changing our views of the solar system — and beyond.
![Artist's rendering of Parker Solar Probe](/sites/default/files/2022-12/IMG_Projects_Parker-Solar-Probe.jpg)
Parker Solar Probe Sun and Solar Wind
![Balloon program engineers working outside](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-Balloon-Programs.jpg)
Balloon Programs Interstellar Medium
![STEREO Spacecrafts and the Sun](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-STEREO.jpg)
STEREO Sun and Solar Wind
![Artist's rendering of New Horizons](/sites/default/files/2022-12/IMG_Projects_New-Horizons.jpg)
New Horizons Pluto, Kuiper Belt Objects, and Comets
![TIMED Satellite](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-TIMED.jpg)
TIMED Earth
![ACE Satellite orbiting the sun](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-ACE.jpg)
ACE Sun and Solar Wind
Past
A sampling of the many completed APL missions that changed the paradigm of space science — and set the stage for today’s voyages of exploration across the solar system.
![DART impact](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-DART.jpg)
DART Asteroids
![Van Allen Probes floating over earth](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-Van-Allen-Probes.jpg)
Van Allen Probes Earth
![MESSENGER Spacecraft](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-MESSENGER.jpg)
MESSENGER Terrestrial Planets
![NEAR Spacecraft in front of asteroid](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-NEAR.jpg)
NEAR Asteroids
![Visualization of Earth with networks in Low Earth Orbit (Credit: Bigstock)](/sites/default/files/2024-06/IMG-Mission-NSS-Missions-Hardware.jpg)
National Security Space Missions and Hardware Earth
![DARC Satellite](/sites/default/files/2024-03/IMG-Mission-DARC.jpg)