Space astrometry missions

European Space Agency astrometric mission

Hipparcos was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions and distances of celestial objects on the sky. This was the first practical attempt at all-sky absolute parallax measurement, something not possible with groundside observatories, and thus represented a fundamental breakthrough in astronomy. The resulting high-precision measurements of the absolute positions, proper motions, and parallaxes of stars enabled better calculatio

cancelled NASA space telescope

The Nano-Japan Astrometry Satellite Mission for Infrared Exploration (Nano-JASMINE) is an astrometric microsatellite developed by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, with contributions by the University of Tokyo's Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory (ISSL). , the satellite was planned for launch together with CHEOPS (Characterizing Exoplanets Satellite) in 2019. However, this launch took place in December 2019 without Nano-JASMINE as one of the three piggyback payloads. Some sources named 2022 as the launch year of the satellite. By 2023, the launch had been cancelled and the sate

The TOLIMAN (Telescope for Orbit Locus Interferometric Monitoring of our Astronomical Neighbourhood) space telescope is a low-cost mission concept aimed at detecting of exoplanets via the astrometry method, and specifically targeting the Alpha Centauri system. TOLIMAN will focus on stars within 10 parsecs (32.6 light years) of the Sun. The telescope is still under construction. The mission will involve scientists of the University of Sydney, Saber Astronautics in Australia, Breakthrough Initiatives, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.