Active missions in the Solar System
The interplanetary fleet on 1 October 2026
On 1 October 2026, 52 spacecraft were active beyond the orbits around Earth: from the observatories at the Lagrange points L1 and L2, each 1.5 million kilometres from us, to Voyager 1, which in November will be one light-day away. Half are American, almost a quarter are Chinese, and the rest belong to Europe, Russia, India, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea.1 The oldest is Voyager 2, launched in August 1977; the newest is the Roman telescope, launched on 30 August 2026 towards the L2 point.
The map recreates Olaf Frohn’s infographic for October 2026.2 Pick a spacecraft to find out what it does, where it is and what comes next. Below the map, two globes show the exact location of the spacecraft on the Moon and on Mars; the catalogue and the calendar gather the same information, ready to filter.3
On the surface of the Moon and Mars
Five of the spacecraft work right on the surface: three on the Moon and two on Mars. Pick a spacecraft from the list and the globe turns to it; then zoom in to see the crater it sits in. You can also drag the globe to rotate it or double-click a point.
The Moon
Mars
Mission catalogue
All 52 spacecraft, in launch order. Click a row for details.
| Agency | Where it is now | Next step |
|---|
What comes next
The flybys, arrivals and launches listed in the infographic, plus a few milestones confirmed by the agencies. Dates after 2027 are indicative; launches are often postponed.
A few terms
- Astronomical unit (AU)
- The average distance between Earth and the Sun, about 149.6 million kilometres.
- Lagrange points
- Places where the pull of two bodies, such as the Sun and Earth, balances the orbital motion, so that a spacecraft keeps its position relative to them. L1 lies between Earth and the Sun, L2 in the opposite direction, each about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.
- Halo orbit
- A loop around a Lagrange point. Spacecraft do not sit exactly at the point, but circle around it.
- Gravity assist (flyby)
- Passing close to a planet to change a spacecraft’s speed and direction without using fuel.
- DRO and NRHO
- Two very stable lunar orbits. The distant retrograde orbit (DRO) circles the Moon from far away, in the direction opposite to its motion; the near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) is highly elongated, passing close to one pole and far from the other.
- Quasi-satellite
- An asteroid that orbits the Sun but always stays near Earth, so that it seems to circle it. Kamoʻoalewa, the target of Tianwen-2, is such a body.
- Trojans
- Asteroids that share a planet’s orbit, gathered in two swarms, 60° ahead of it (L4) and behind it (L5).
- Heliopause
- The boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium, about 120 AU from the Sun. Only the two Voyager probes have crossed it.