Since the mid-1950s, UCL has led the development and deployment of space instrumentation. Early instruments were launched on sounding rockets, such as the UK Skylark rockets (one of which stands in the MSSL hallway), while more recent instruments have been part of international missions from NASA, ESA, Jaxa and others. MSSL hardware has been on over 300 space missions since 1957 and been placed in orbit around Earth, Mars, Venus, Saturn as well as visiting comets passing through the solar system.

Operational Missions

Solar Orbiter
Solar Orbiter

Solar Orbiter

Solar Orbiter will orbit the Sun at ever closer distances, reaching 0.28 AU by the end of the mission, providing both remote sensing and in-situ measurements of the Sun and its surroundings.

Swift
The Swift Satellite

Swift

Swift is a NASA mission solving the mysteries of gamma-ray bursts. Within seconds of detection, Swift relays its location, enabling ground-based and space-based telescopes to detect the afterglow.

Hinode
Image of the Hinode spacecraft. Major UCL collaborations with the Japanese have been building and operating instruments on spacecraft studying the Sun - and then the science that follows.…

Hinode

Hinode studies the generation, transport, and dissipation of magnetic energy from the solar photosphere to the corona and records how energy stored in the sun's magnetic field is released.

Euclid
Euclid

Euclid

Euclid will map the geometry of the dark Universe. The mission will investigate the distance-redshift relationship and the evolution of cosmic structures, looking back in time 10 billion years.

Missions in Development

PLATO
Artist's impression of ESA's Plato (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) mission

PLATO

PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) will detecting terrestrial exoplanets and characterising their bulk properties, including planets in the habitable zones of their host stars.

SMILE
The SMILE mission spacecraft orbiting Earth and looking down on its magnetosphere with the Sun to the left

SMILE

The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) is a joint mission by ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to study the boundary between the magnetosphere and interplanetary space

Rosalind Franklin (ExoMars)
The ESA Rosalind Franklin (ExoMars 2020) rover

Rosalind Franklin (ExoMars)

A European rover, Rosalind Franklin, will explore the surface of Mars. The rover will be the first mission to combine the capability to move across the surface and to study Mars at depth.

Legacy Mission

Gaia
Gaia Satellite

Gaia

Gaia surveyed the motion of stars in the Milky Way galaxy to reveal its composition, formation and evolution. Although operations have finished, we continue to work on the final upcoming data releases

Cluster II
Cluster II Mission

Cluster II

Cluster was the first mission to study Earth's magnetosphere with a formation of four identical spacecraft. Although the mission has ended, we continue to calibrate and deliver the final data products