▲The interplanetary space probe New Horizons, launched in 2006, reached Pluto in 2015.

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The remote dwarf planet was captured by New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager during a flyby. It then continued towards the Kuiper belt.

▲In January 2019, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft photographed a 32-km-long (20-mi-long) space rock located in the Kuiper belt—a collection of debris and dwarf planets. Nicknamed "Ultima Thule," this is currently the farthest object in the solar system visited by a spacecraft.

▲Messenger was the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, doing so between 2011 and 2015.

▲A photograph of Uranus, taken by Voyager 2 in 1986 as it headed towards the planet Neptune.

▲Launched in September 2016, OSIRIS-REx reached the proximity of the near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu in December 2018.

▲Sent in 1997 to study Saturn and its system, Cassini's trajectory allowed flybys of Venus, the Masursky asteroid, and Jupiter.

▲An artist's rendition of a Pioneer spacecraft on its way to interstellar space. The American space probe was launched in 1972 and completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter.

▲The Mars rover Curiosity's stunning view of Mount Sharp, taken on the Martian surface in September 2015.

▲Cloud structure in the Venusian atmosphere in 1979, revealed in ultraviolet observations by Pioneer Venus Orbiter.

▲The Galileo probe entered Jupiter's hot spot in December 1995 and was able to function for nearly one hour before contact was lost. NASA scientists gained significant insight into the planet's atmosphere.

▲The ISEE-3 International Cometary Explorer was the first spacecraft to visit a comet, Giacobini-Zinner, in 1985.

▲Launched in November 1964, Mariner 4 was designed to conduct planetary investigation in flyby mode.

▲A Pioneer 10 image of Jupiter showing the characteristic Great Red Spot.

▲Mariner 2 was the first space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter by achieving a Venus flyby in December 1962.

▲Pioneer 6, 7, 8, and 9 were a series of solar orbiting probes launched between 1965 and 1968. Designed to measure the first detailed measurements of solar wind, the solar magnetic field, and cosmic rays, two of the spacecraft were still contactable as late as 2000.

▲Mariner 4 sent back the first close-up images ever taken of Mars, a remarkable achievement at the time.

▲The Great Red Spot photographed during the Voyager 2 flyby of Jupiter.

▲This image of Europa was produced from the Galileo images of the moon, one of dozens of moons orbiting the giant planet.

▲The Mars rover Curiosity landed on the planet in August 2012, and is still operational. This image shows a self-portrait of the vehicle at the Big Sky site.

▲Successfully having landed on Mars in November 2018, InSight was designed to study the deep interior of the red planet.

▲Titan, one of Jupiter's moons, reveals its true colors in this view from the Cassini spacecraft.

▲Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, both launched in 1977, have now reached interstellar space. Voyager 1 is currently 18.8 billion km (11.7 billion mi) away from Earth, while Voyager 2 is 15.3 billion km (9.5 billion mi) away from Earth.

▲Launched to Venus in 1978, the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and the Pioneer Venus multiprobe transmitted data until October 1992.

▲Asteroid 101955 Bennu photographed by OSIRIS-REx from a range of 24 km (15 mi).

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Flying aboard Voyagers 1 and 2 are identical "golden" records, carrying the story of Earth towards the outermost border of our solar system.

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The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has confirmed that their robotic explorer touched down on the surface of the moon, marking what may be the country's first successful moon landing. It landed on January 20 at 12:20 a.m. Japan Standard Time. The uncrewed explorer, nicknamed "Moon Sniper," is a small-scale spacecraft known as a Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (or SLIM for short). The Moon Sniper was named for its precision landing technology, which should allow it to pinpoint a much more specific landing zone than any other spacecraft in history. In the past, lunar missions could only vaguely aim for a zone that stretched several miles, whereas the Moon Sniper could target a smaller landing strip of 100 meters (328 feet). The mission objective is to examine rocks around the landing site that may offer greater insights into the origins of the moon.

In the hours following the landing, the space agency revealed that it had landed, but they would need time to analyze the data from the explorer to confirm whether or not it was successful in its precision landing. They were also working to resolve some issues with the craft, revealing that it was failing to generate solar power and was operating on a limited battery supply. It may be a month before they can confirm whether or not the Moon Sniper truly achieved a soft landing, meaning it landed without significant damage and will be able to complete its objective. If this is the case, Japan will make history as the fifth country to successfully land on the moon.

Regardless, the mission has marked Japan as a serious new contender in the modern space race. The Soviet Union, the US, and China all put crewed or uncrewed spacecraft on the moon in the latter half of the 20th century, and India became the fourth country to join the club in 2023.

For a brief history of space exploration since the 1960s, browse this gallery and lift off on a journey out of this world.