Flight Programs

The mission of the Explorers Program is to provide frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. Explorers are opportunities for innovative science and fill the scientific gaps between the larger missions. The program seeks to enhance public awareness of, and appreciation for, space science and to incorporate educational and public outreach activities as integral parts of space science investigations. 

The Astrophysics Strategic Missions Program (ASMP) consists of large, strategic missions that seek to advance high-priority science objectives set forth by the astrophysics science community to understand how the universe works, explore how it began and evolved, and search for life on planets around other stars. ASMP is implementing the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a mandate from the 2010 Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics. After Roman, the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), the top priority of the 2020 Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics, will be NASA’s next flagship space telescope optimized to search for Earth-like planets. At the start of pre-formulation, the HWO would transfer from the Great Observatories Maturation Program (GOMAP) to ASMP.