List of extraterrestrial orbiters

List of extraterrestrial orbiters is a listing of spacecraft that achieved an extraterrestrial orbit.

Sun

See List of artificial objects in heliocentric orbit

Mercury

Mission	Country/Agency	Orbital insertion	Current Status	Notes
MESSENGER	USA	18 March 2011	Deliberately crashed into surface 30 April 2015. Impact probably around 54.4° N, 149.9° W, near the crater Janáček.	First Mercury orbiter

Venus

Mission	Country/Agency	Orbital insertion	Current Status	Notes
Venera 9	USSR	22 October 1975		First Venus orbiter
Venera 10	USSR	23 October 1975
Pioneer Venus Orbiter	USA	4 December 1978	Contact lost 8 October 1992; atmospheric entry disintegration on 22 October 1992.
Venera 15	USSR	10 October 1983	Contact lost July 1984
Venera 16	USSR	11 October 1983	Contact lost July 1984
Magellan	USA	7 August 1990	Deliberately deorbited into Venus' atmosphere. Contact lost 13 October 1994.
Venus Express	ESA	2006 April 11	Mission ended December 2014

Moon

The Apollo 17 CSM seen in lunar orbit from the ascent stage of the Lunar Module

Mission	Country/Agency	Orbital insertion	Current status	Notes
Luna 10[1]	USSR	3 April 1966	Contact lost 30 May 1966	First extraterrestrial orbiter
Lunar Orbiter 1	USA	14 August 1966	Impacted lunar surface 29 October 1966	First U.S. extraterrestrial orbiter
Luna 11[2]	USSR	27 August 1966	1 October 1966
Luna 12	USSR	25 October 1966	19 January 1967
Lunar Orbiter 2	USA	Launched 6 November 1966	Impacted lunar surface 11 October 1967
Lunar Orbiter 3	USA	8 February 1967	Impacted lunar surface 9 October 1967
Lunar Orbiter 4	USA	Launched 4 May 1967	Contact lost 17 July 1967, impacted lunar surface 6 October 1967
Explorer 35	USA	Launched 19 July 1967	Deactivated 24 June 1973; impacted lunar surface in the middle to late 1970s
Lunar Orbiter 5	USA	5 August 1967	Deorbited; impacted lunar surface 31 January 1968
Luna 14	USSR	10 April 1968
Luna 19	USSR	2 October 1971	Mission terminated 20 October 1972
Explorer 49	USA	Launched 10 June 1973	Contact lost August 1977
Luna 22	USSR	2 June 1974	Mission terminated November 1975
Apollo 8	USA	Launched 21 December 1968; entered orbit after 69 hrs	Left orbit after 10 orbits; splashdown on Earth	First manned lunar orbit
Apollo 10	USA	Launched 18 May 1969	Left orbit 26 May 1969
Apollo 11	USA
Apollo 12	USA
Apollo 14	USA
Apollo 15	USA
Apollo 15 subsatellite (PFS-1)	USA
Apollo 16	USA
Apollo 16 subsatellite (PFS-2)	USA
Apollo 17	USA
Hiten and Hagoromo	Japan	Hiten: 15 February 1993	Hiten was deliberately deorbited and impacted the lunar surface 10 April 1993	First Japanese lunar orbiter
Clementine	USA	Launched 25 January 1994	Left lunar orbit and entered heliocentric orbit; contact lost June 1994
Lunar Prospector	USA	Launched 7 January 1998	Deliberately deorbited; impacted lunar surface 31 July 1999
SMART-1	ESA	11 November 2004	Deliberately deorbited; impacted lunar surface 3 September 2006
SELENE (Kaguya, Okina & Ouna)	Japan	3 October 2007	Deliberately deorbited; impacted lunar surface 10 June 2009
Chang'e 1	PRC	5 November 2007	Deliberately deorbited 1 March 2009; impacted the Moon's surface.	First Chinese lunar orbiter
Chang'e 2	PRC	6 October 2010	Left lunar orbit 8 June 2011; currently in deep-space orbit
Chandrayaan-1	India	8 November 2008	Contact lost 29 August 2009	First Indian lunar orbiter
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter[3]	USA	23 June 2009	Active
ARTEMIS[4]	USA	2 July 2011 / 17 July 2011	Active
Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)	USA	31 December 2011 / 1 January 2012	Both spacecraft were deliberately deorbited and impacted on the lunar surface 17 December 2012
LADEE	USA	6 October 2013	Deliberately deorbited 18 April 2014
Chang'e 3	PRC	6 December 2013	Landed on lunar surface 14 December 2013	First Chinese lunar landing
Chang'e 5-T1	PRC	13 January 2015	Active

Mars

Mission	Country/Agency	Orbital insertion	Current Status	Notes
Mariner 9	USA	14 November 1971	Deactivated 27 October 1972. In derelict orbit around Mars, expected to decay no sooner than 2022.[5]	First spacecraft to orbit another planet
Mars 2 orbiter	USSR	27 November 1971 [6]	Mission terminated 22 August 1972; spacecraft in derelict orbit	First Soviet spacecraft to orbit Mars
Mars 3 orbiter	USSR	2 December 1971[6]
Mars 5 orbiter[7]	USSR	12 February 1974
Viking 1 orbiter	USA	19 June 1976	Mission terminated 17 August 1980, spacecraft in derelict high altitude orbit.
Viking 2 orbiter	USA	7 August 1976	Mission terminated 25 July 1978, spacecraft in derelict high altitude orbit.
Phobos 2[8]	USSR	29 January 1989	Contact lost 27 March 1989
Mars Global Surveyor	USA	11 September 1997	Contact lost 2 November 2006; mission officially ended January 2007
2001 Mars Odyssey	USA	24 October 2001	Active	Longest-surviving, continuously active spacecraft in orbit around another planet
Mars Express	ESA	20 December 2003	Active
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter	USA	10 March 2006	Active
MAVEN	USA	22 September 2014	Active
Mars Orbiter Mission	ISRO	24 September 2014	Active	India's first interplanetary mission

Minor planets and comets

Mission	Country/Agency	Object	Orbital insertion	Current Status	Notes
NEAR Shoemaker	USA	433 Eros	14 February 2000 (Valentine's Day)	Landed 12 February 2001 on the surface of Eros.	First spacecraft to orbit an asteroid
Dawn	USA	4 Vesta	16 July 2011	Left Vesta orbit 5 September 2012
Dawn	USA	Ceres	9 March 2015	Active	First spacecraft to achieve orbit around two separate objects and to orbit a dwarf planet.
Rosetta	ESA	67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko	6 August 2014	Active	First spacecraft to orbit a comet. Philae lander module successfully landed on 12 November 2014

Jupiter

Mission	Country/Agency	Orbital insertion	Current Status	Notes
Galileo	USA	8 December 1995	Intentionally deorbited and incinerated in Jupiter's atmosphere 21 September 2003	First Jupiter orbiter

Saturn

Mission	Country/Agency	Orbital insertion	Current Status	Notes
Cassini-Huygens	USA / ESA	1 July 2004	Active	First Saturn orbiter

References

1. NSSDC - Luna 10
2. NSSDC - Luna 11
3. Where is LRO?
4. Hendrix, Susan. "Second ARTEMIS Spacecraft Successfully Enters Lunar Orbit". The Sun-Earth Connection: Heliophysics. NASA.
5. NASA - This Month in NASA History: Mariner 9, November 29, 2011 — Vol. 4, Issue 9
6. NASA Mars log
7. Historic Spacecraft - Mars Probes
8. Encyclopedia Astronautica Fobos 1F

See also

• Lunar orbit
• Circumlunar trajectory
• List of asteroids visited by spacecraft
• List of landings on extraterrestrial bodies