FUSE is a NASA-supported astrophysics mission that was launched on June 24, 1999, to explore the Universe using the technique of high-resolution spectroscopy in the far-ultraviolet spectral region. The Johns Hopkins University has the lead role in developing and now operating the mission, in collaboration with The University of Colorado at Boulder, The University of California at Berkeley, international partners the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the French Space Agency (CNES), and corporate partners. FUSE is part of NASA's Origins Program under the auspices of NASA's Office of Space Science.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history. Such observations will tell scientists how galaxies, the basic structures of our Universe, evolve and change. Additionally, GALEX will probe the causes of star formation during a period when most of the stars and elements we see today had their origins.

Understanding the transition between star and planet. The concept of the Genesis mission is to send a spacecraft beyond the influence of Earth to collect pristine material from the solar wind for a period of two years, and then return the samples to Earth for analysis of its elemental and isotopic abundances in state-of-the-art laboratories. These studies will enrich our understanding of the birth and evolution of the planets, their satellites, and all other bodies in our solar system. The Genesis mission will return a reservoir of solar system matter which will be available for study throughout the 21st century -- that is, the samples will endure long after the end of the mission. Fact sheet. Genesis video. Historical note. Related sites.

GRACE is a joint project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Deutsches Zentrum fr Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR). The primary Science Objective of the GRACE mission is to provide with unprecedented accuracy, global and high-resolution estimates of the constant and time-variable part of the Earth's gravity field. Secondary objective is the measurement of several hundred globally distributed profiles per day of the excess delay or bending angle of GPS measurements caused by the atmosphere and ionosphere, which can be converted to total electron content and/or refractivity, respectively.

This GLAST Mission is part of NASA's Office of Space and Science Strategic Plan, with launch anticipated in 2006. GLAST is a next generation high-energy gamma-ray observatory designed for making observations of celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy band extending from 10 MeV to more than 100 GeV. This provides a first point of contact for the GLAST Large Area Telescope (LAT), the high-energy gamma-ray instrument on GLAST. From here it is possible to reach public information sites, project management information, and web pages of the LAT subsystems. The GLAST project is funded in the United States by NASA and the Department of Energy and by government agencies in France, Italy, Japan, and Sweden.

The Center for Astrophysics combines the resources and research facilities of the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under a single director to pursue studies of those basic physical processes that determine the nature and evolution of the universe. Today, some 300 Smithsonian and Harvard scientists cooperate in broad programs of astrophysical research supported by Federal appropriations and University funds as well as contracts and grants from government agencies. These scientific investigations touch on almost all major topics in astronomy.

The Haystack Observatory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is an interdisciplinary research center engaged in radio astronomy, geodesy, atmospheric sciences, and radar applications. The radio-astronomy program is conducted under the auspices of the Northeast Radio Observatory Corporation (NEROC), a consortium of 13 educational and research institutions in the northeast, which operates the Haystack radio telescope under agreement with MIT. Haystack Observatory is located in the adjoining towns of Westford, Tyngsborough, and Groton, Massachusetts, about 35 miles northwest of the MIT campus in Cambridge.

Launched in August of 2005, the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) is flying onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission. HiRISE will investigate deposits and landforms resulting from geologic and climatic processes and assist in the evaluation of candidate landing sites. By combining very high resolution and signal-to-noise ratio with a large swath width, it is possible to image on a variety of scales down to 1 meter, a scale currently afforded only in glimpses by landers. HiRISE will offer such views over any selected region of Mars, providing a bridge between orbital remote sensing and landed missions. Stereo image pairs will be acquired over the highest-priority locations with a vertical precision of better than 25 cm per pixel.

Home of the Hubble Space Telescope, a NASA Origins mission that seeks answers to fundamental questions about the universe and our place in it. Nearly 400 years after Galileo first observed the heavens through a telescope, we continue to seek answers to age-old questions about the universe. And while the technology has evolved over the centuries, the inquiry remains essentially the same: Whats out there, where did it come from, and what does it mean? At the Space Telescope Science Institute, were working hard to study and explain the once-unimaginable celestial phenomena now made visible using Hubbles cutting-edge technology. In the course of this exploration we will continue to share with you the grace and beauty of the universe because the discoveries belong to all of us. Probe deeper! Explore the site to learn more about who we are and what we do. HubbleSite is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Want to know when a spacecraft will be flying over your city? Check out a list of quick and easy sightings by city.

News from the Payload Operations Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the world's primary science command post for the International Space Station. Tour the Science Command Post. See the Space Station. Track the Space Station. Space Station Time on Orbit. NASA TV/Web Cams.

Welcome to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. There has never been a more exciting time for JPL than now, with exciting missions spread throughout the solar system. I hope you'll use our Web site to chart this time of unprecedented challenge and exploratory adventure. In January, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on opposite sides of Mars on a mission to search for clues of past water on the red planet. The comet-chasing Stardust spacecraft scooped up samples of comet particles and is now en route back to Earth with its unique cargo. And in late June, after nearly seven years of interplanetary space travel, NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully arrived at Saturn and began a four-year study of the "gem of the solar system." But JPL's exploratory desire reaches far beyond our planetary neighborhood. Ground- and space-based telescopes are peering into the cosmos to learn more about the origins of the universe and search for Earth-like planets. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Galaxy Evolution Explorer, both managed by JPL, are capturing dazzling images as they study distant galaxies. The backbone of this exploration lies with NASA's Deep Space Network, also managed by JPL. This international network of antennas supports communications between distant spacecraft and the Earth-based teams who manage them. JPL missions also turn a watchful eye on Earth, using spacecraft and instruments aboard NASA satellites to expand knowledge of our home planet. Technologies developed for space often have applications on Earth in medicine, communications, safety and more.

KIPAC is an Independent Laboratory of Stanford University, initiated by a generous grant from Fred Kavli & the Kavli Foundation, housed at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and on Stanford campus in the Varian Physics building. Funded in part by Stanford University and the United States Department of Energy. Our Mission is to bridge theoretical and experimental physics communities, and bring their combined strengths to bear on some of the most challenging and fascinating problems in particle astrophysics and cosmology.

The Keck Interferometer is a powerful new instrument that is being developed to search for new planets and investigate our cosmic origins. Located 4,150 meters (13,600 feet) above the Pacific Ocean atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano, the W.M. Keck Observatory houses the world's two largest optical and infrared telescopes. By linking them together as an instrument called an interferometer, astronomers can obtain measurements that are not possible with a single telescope. Observations are carried out by pointing both telescopes at the same target and combining their light in an optical laboratory in the basement of the observatory.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a proposed ground-based 8.4-meter, 10 square-degree-field telescope that will provide digital imaging of faint astronomical objects across the entire sky, night after night. In a relentless campaign of 10-second exposures, LSST will cover the available sky every three nights, opening a movie-like window on objects that change or move on rapid timescales: exploding supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, and distant Kuiper Belt Objects. The superb images from the LSST will also be used to trace the apparent distortions in the shapes of remote galaxies produced by lumps of Dark Matter, providing multiple tests of the mysterious Dark Energy.