Access to Space
Rockets & Launch
The machines that break gravity — and the economics reshaping who can.
Reusability turned launch from an expendable, once-per-vehicle event into something closer to aviation, collapsing the cost of reaching orbit and multiplying how often anyone can go. The rockets flying now — and the heavy-lift vehicles being tested — set the ceiling on every other ambition in spaceflight.
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Missions to Rockets & Launch
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NASA · Interstellar Space
Voyager 1
The most distant human-made object, now travelling through interstellar space. Launched in 1977, transmitting data from over 23 billion km away.
NASA · Mars
Mars Sample Return
The Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign is an ambitious joint initiative by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) designed to bring pristine Martian soil, rock cores, and atmospheric samples back to Earth for the first time in human history. Building upon the groundwork laid by the Perseverance rover—which has been collecting and sealing scientifically valuable samples in Jezero Crater—this multi-vehicle mission involves complex robotics, a launch from the surface of another planet, and an orbital rendezvous to deliver the samples safely back to terrestrial laboratories for advanced, in-depth analysis.
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