NASA plans to send a spacecraft to an asteroid in 2016, in a mission with the snappy title "Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer," or OSIRIS-Rex for short. The mission's purpose is to gather samples from an asteroid utilizing a robotic arm, then bring them back home for analysis. The samples will help explain the formation of the solar system, NASA believes. If the mission succeeds, it will be the first U.S. mission to bring asteroid samples back to Earth.
Some people are unaware of the existence of the International Space Station, which sits in a low-Earth orbit. The modular station was built section by section through international cooperation, to create a unique research and operations facility. As of 2010, nearly 200 individuals from eight countries had lived and worked on the station. If humans are ever to conquer another planet, it will be thanks in part to the experience gained on the ISS.
Juno is a planned mission to Jupiter, with the aim of discovering more about our solar system's largest planet, its creation and evolution. With a planned launch in August 2011, Juno will head to Jupiter on a five-year voyage. Arriving in July 2016, the craft will orbit the planet for a year to determine the water content, temperature and cloud activity of the Jovian atmosphere. The craft will complete 32 orbits before ending its mission.
The space transportation system, commonly known as the space shuttle, is coming to an end. After 30 years of space travel and more than 130 missions, the fleet will be retired in 2011, according to NASA. The space shuttle has brought countless scientific and technological benefits to the U.S. and to the rest of the world. Another craft, the observatory Aquarius, will be launched to study the Earth from space. The mission, which will collect a range of environmental data, represents NASA's first space observations of the amount of dissolved salt in the seas.