Interplanetary mission

An interplanetary mission is a voyage or trip through outer space involving more than one planet. As of 28th November 2015, there have been no manned interplanetary missions. So far, all manned missions have been in Earth's orbit or to its Moon. A large number of robotic interplanetary missions have been performed by the NASA, the Soviet Union (and later by Roscosmos), Indian Space Research Organisation, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency.

The Apollo Applications Program planned a three-month interplanetary mission to Venus using Apollo hardware in the 1970s. The American space agency NASA intends to be able to launch a manned interplanetary mission to Mars by some time after 2030 under the Vision for Space Exploration. The European Space Agency has the long-term vision of sending a human mission to Mars by 2030 under the Aurora Programme.

The first interplanetary mission to fly past another planet was the Soviet Union's Venera 1. The robotic spacecraft was intended to enter into orbit around Venus, but suffered a malfunction and radio contact with the spacecraft was lost. The defunct Venera 1 passed within 100,000 km (62,000 mi) of Venus before entering a heliocentric orbit. The United States' Mariner 2 became the first successful interplanetary mission in December 1962 when it collected data within 35,000 km (22,000 mi) of Venus.

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