AMPTE (1984) 
     This project was a cooperation between NASA, Great Britain, and Germany.  Launched by a Delta rocket, it carried one satellite from each country and was designed to watch how barium and lithium ions affect the Earth's magnetic field.  The spacecraft observed how quickly the barium atoms were ionized by the ultraviolet portion of the sun's light. 
  
Giotto (1985)  
     Headed by the European Space Agency, it was named after Giotto Di Bondane, a 14th century painter who painted a picture with a comet, now believed to be Halley's, that which it was going to examine.  Its goal was to use its equipment: a TV camera, a photopolarimeter,  3 mass spectrometers, dust impact detectors to examine Halley's comet in space.  The satellite successfully documented the comet, but half its instruments were destroyed. 

Luna (1959-1976) 
     This Soviet project was designed to travel to the moon and take pictures from it's surface.  This project established many firsts in lunar travel.  It was the first spacecraft to hit the Moon, the first to travel behind and take pictures of the moons far side, make a soft landing on the moon, and to move an remote controlled rover on the Moon's surface.  Although it missed it's original purpose, Luna 1 became the first manmade object to orbit the Sun. 

Orbiter (1966-1967) 
     The 5 Orbiter satellites the U.S. put into orbit in three month orbitals were intended to return detailed TV pictures of the entire lunar surface.  These were later used to construe maps used to pick Apollo landing sites.  The television imaging system was developed by the Eastman Kodak company.  The entire project accomplished its goals with excellence in the quality of pictures and its time frame. 

Mariner (1962-1973) 
      This NASA project was under the direction of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL).  Its planetary movement was based on the 'interplanetary billiards' theory of the 1920s.  It was able to visit Earth's planetary neighbors without extra rocket stages.  The mariner project was the first to achieve planetary "fly-byes" of Venus, Mars and  Mercury. 

Phobos (1988) 
    These two Soviet Satellites were claimed to be the next generation in space exploration.  Its mission was to orbit Mars, closely pass its larger moon, Phobos, and continue to investigate the planet and solar wind environment.  Each of the crafts returned data about the solar wind, but in both satellites, communication was lost. 

Pioneer (1958-1978) [image 1] [image 2] [image 3] [image 4] 
    The first 4 Pioneer missions were NASA's first attempts at sending probes to the moon.  All 4 of the satellites missed their intended targets, but Pioneer4 went into the solar orbit and returned a great deal of useful organization.  The Pioneer missions had very different goals: Pioneer 5 to 9 were sent to examine interplanetary environments; 10 and 11 were to sent towards Jupiter(Saturn was later added to 11's itinerary).  The Pioneer project included the first probe to Jupiter and Saturn, and the first radar maps(of Venus). 

Ranger (1961-1965) [image 1] 
    NASA's Ranger Project was designed to crash onto the surface of the moon, taking and relaying TV pictures before impact.  The first were unsuccessful.  It is believed that many of the probes scientific instruments were damaged in a 1251/4C sterilization.  Finally Ranger 7 was successful.  It returned 4,308 Pictures of what is called Mare Cognitum("The sea which is now known").  Ranger 7 and 8 revealed that the crater Alphonsus was suitable for the Ranger 9 landing.  Overall the Ranger projects produced a  great deal of information on the moon. 

Sagikake (1985) 
    One of Japan's first space probes, Sagikake("Pioneer") was launched January 7 1985 from Kagoshima Space Center.  Its purpose was to investigate the interaction of the solar wind and Halley's comet.  It discovered that the solar wind was disturbed by the comet as far away as 7 million km (4.4 million miles). 

Suisei (1985) 
    Japan's second space probe, Suisei ("Comet") was launched in order to investigate the growth and decay of Halley's comet's corona and the interaction of the solar wind and the comet itself.  It carried an ultraviolet imaging experiment to accomplish this.  It was launched August 18, 1985.  It reached within 94,000 miles of the comet's nucleus. 

Surveyor (1966-1968) 
    These probes were developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.   All seven craft were built by Hughes Aircraft.  The first satellite landed safely on the surface of the moon  in the Ocean of Storms.  The second failed but all the rest were successful.. They were able to take a 3601/4 panoramic view of the lunar surface.  Surveyor 3 made the first soil sample of the moon.  The Surveyor mission confirmed that a manned mission to the moon was possible.  Surveyor 6 even fired it's soft landing engines and hopped on the surface to test its strength. 

VeGa (1984-1987) 
     These missions were aimed at investigating Halley's Comet but also deployed balloons over Venus(the name is a combination of Venera[Venus] and Gallei[Halley]).  VeGa 1 and 2 were both launched from Baikonur with Proton boosters.  VeGa 1 was launched December 15, 1984 and VeGa 2 was launched on the twenty-third.  In June 1985, VeGa 1 had passed within 25,000 miles of Venus' cloud-tops and VeGa 2 within 15,600 miles.  Both satellites dropped landers with balloons into the atmosphere.  The first malfunctioned when its drill began too early, but the second returned data for 57 minutes.  The balloons that were dropped contained temperature and pressure receptors, and cloud composition analyzers in the "gondola," an instrument which hung bellow the  plastic 12' diameter hydrogen balloon.  They lasted for 46 hours sending radio signals back to Earth so they could be tracked. The main space crafts went on to investigate Halley's Comet.  VeGa 1 made it's trip within 5,562 miles of the nucleus on March 6, 1986 and VeGa 2 within 5,062 miles on March 9.  The crafts included instruments such as a CCD(Charge Couple Device) to observe the nucleus, 2 TV cameras  and instruments to analyze dust from the comet.  The VeGa Project was an international project that returned ample information about the atmosphere of Venus and Halley's Comet.  It was finally shut down in 1987. 

Venera (1961-1983)  
     These 16 Soviet missions were aimed towards Venus and consequently established many firsts.  Venera 4 was the first probe to penetrate the Venusian atmosphere, Venera 8 had the first successful Landing on the surface of Venus,    Venera 9 was the first craft to Orbit the planet, Venera 13 was the first craft to return color TV pictures of the Venusian surface and soil analysis, and Venera 16 was the first radar mapping of the planet.  The Venera mission revealed much of the Venusian surface. 

Viking (1975) [image 1] [image 2] [image 3] 
      This NASA mission was designed to investigate the possibility of any possible life on Mars.  In order that they do not mistake Earth Bacteria for Martian life, the crafts were sterilized at 112 degrees Celsius.  Along with the TV cameras, the Viking craft were also equipped with a spectrometer called an Infra-red Thermal Mapper used to measure the temperature profile of the surface and atmosphere and  the Mars Atmosphere Water detector to search for water vapor in the Martian Atmosphere.  The lander carried 11 experiments that would be carried out but the soil analysis of the Martian soil was deemed inconclusive.  The probes were powered by Radioisotope Thermonuclear Generators.  But the results of the Viking tests were very helpful.  The TV pictures show the plain-like surface of the planet, covered by small volcanic rocks and unmoved sand dunes.

Voyager(1977)
 One of the most successful space explorations ever, the Voyager project was created to use the gravitational pull of other planets to visit the outer planets.  The first project, because of cutbacks, only visited Jupiter and Saturn.  But the second had the calculations to reach Uranus and Neptune.  The craft was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 
  The craft was powered via a Radioisotope Thermonuclear Generator.  The craft had many different instruments for an array of experiments: Imaging Science, measured the weather systems and geological surfaces were examined by TV cameras; an infrared interferometer spectrometer used a telescope and viewed the surface at different wavelengths to examine atmospheric competition, thermal dynamics, and structure.  An ultraviolet spectrometer(UVS), was used to observe the upper atmosphere of the outer planets and the aurora and electrically-charged particles in their magnetospheres.  Photopolarimeter(PPS) was meant to measure the polarization and brightness of the light from the planets.  But Voyager 1's failed and Voyager 2's were used to examine the rings.   A Planetary Radio Astronomy(PRA) was designed to listen to radio emissions  from the outer planets.  A Magnetometer measured the intensity and direction of magnetic fields that enveloped the spacecraft.  Plasma Particles evaluated how the magnetospheres of the planets and moons interacted with the solar wind (the machine determines whether particles in a plasma[a gas made of charged particles that equal in net charge] are moving less than the speed of light).  To study and measure the cosmic rays, which are shielded from Earth by solar wind, the Voyager had a Cosmic ray telescope.
 Although launched second, Voyager 1 reached Jupiter first.  After it reached Saturn in 1980 its cameras were switched off but the particle instruments kept working.  Voyager reached Saturn and flew through the rings gathering much information, but in the process a malfunction caused the scanning platform to get jammed and providing only minimal movement for the scanner.  After reaching Neptune in 1985, certain tricks, like sending data back to Earth slower, were used to make sure we would receive all the data clearly.  The craft reached Neptune and Uranus, nearly 3.2 billion miles away. Both craft are still traveling in space but will break communications because of distance in about 2010.  They will keep traveling onto distant stars and galaxies.  The craft also includes the Voyager Interstellar Record, a videodisc containing Earth languages, sounds and music(including some from Chuck Berry), the idea was sent forth by Carl Sagan, a noted American astronomer.