The Explorer program is a United States space exploration program that provides flight opportunities for physics, heliophysics, and astrophysics investigations from space. Over 90 space missions have been launched from 1958 to 2011, and it is still active. Starting with Explorer 6, it has been a NASA program, and they have worked with a variety of other institutions and business, including many international collaborations. Currently, the major subprograms are Small Explorer program (SMEX) and Medium Explorer Program (MIDEX).
Launchers have included Jupiter C/Juno I, Juno II, various Thor rockets such as Thor-Able, Scout, various Delta and Delta II rockets (see Delta rocket family), and Pegasus.
Read more about Explorer Program: History, Spacecraft By Year, Spacecraft By Name, Other Missions, Recently Ended Missions
Famous quotes containing the words explorer and/or program:
“In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas ... a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“The energy, the brutality, the scale, the contrast, the tension, the rapid change—and the permanent congestion—are what the New Yorker misses when he leaves the city.”
—In New York City, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)