Heliophysics Satellite Fleet - 2026

A tour of the NASA Heliophysics fleet (as of January 2026), from near-Earth satellites to the Voyagers beyond the heliopause, showing the scale of the fleet across the solar system.

Satellites included in this visualization:

Earth
Hinode: Observes the Sun in multiple wavelengths up to x-rays.
TIMED: Studies the upper layers (40-110 miles up) of Earth's atmosphere.
AWE (on the ISS) studies atmospheric gravity waves
IRIS: Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph is designed to take high-resolution spectra and images of the region between the solar photosphere and solar atmosphere.
SDO: Solar Dynamics Observatory keeps the Sun under continuous observation at 16 megapixel resolution.
GOLD: Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk is a spectroscopic imager for studying the ionosphere.
Geotail: Conducts measurements of electrons and ions in the Earth's magnetotail.
Magnetospheric Multi-scale (MMS): This is a group of four satellites which fly in formation to measure how particles and fields in the magnetosphere vary in space and time.
THEMIS: This is a fleet of three satellites to study how magnetospheric instabilities produce substorms. Two of the original five satellites were moved into lunar orbit to become THEMIS-ARTEMIS.
IBEX: The Interstellar Boundary Explorer measures the flux of neutral atoms from the heliopause.
EZIE: A mission to explore the Sun and the system that drives space weather near Earth.
PUNCH: A constellation of four small satellites in low Earth orbit that will make global, 3D observations of the entire inner heliosphere to learn how the Sun's corona becomes the solar wind.
TRACERS: Helps understand magnetic reconnection and its effects in Earth’s atmosphere.

Moon
THEMIS-ARTEMIS: Two of the THEMIS satellites were moved into lunar orbit to study the interaction of the Earth's magnetosphere with the Moon.

L1
The L1 point is a Lagrange Point between the Sun and the Earth. Spacecraft can orbit this location for continuous coverage of the Sun.
SOHO: Studies the Sun with cameras and a multitude of other instruments.
ACE: Measures the composition and characteristics of the solar wind.
Wind: Measures particle flows and fields in the solar wind.
IMAP: helps researchers better understand the boundary of the heliosphere.
Carruthers: Studies Earth’s geocorona, the ultraviolet glow emitted by Earth's exosphere, our planets outermost atmospheric layer.

L2/Mars
ESCAPADE: will study Mars’ real-time response to the solar wind, helping us better understand climate history of the Red Planet.

Solar Orbiting Fleet
STEREO-A: The remaining STEREO spaceraft orbits the Sun in roughly the same orbit as Earth.
Parker Solar Probe: On an orbit that takes it closer to the Sun than any other mission.
Solar Orbiter: On an orbit that takes it to high solar latitudes.
Voyager 1 & Voyager 2: The two Voyager spaceraft orbit originally performed flybys of the outer planets of the solar system but continued to operate. They are now the most distant monitors of the plasma in the space between the stars. At the time of this visualization, Voyager 2 has just crossed the heliopause.