Destination · Star
Sun
Every figure on this page is counted from the committed mission records that name Sun as a destination. None of them is maintained by hand.
Ephemeris committed
Body record
What the catalog records about Sun
- Body type
- Star
- Mean radius
- 700,000 km
- Mean distance from the Sun
- 0 km
- Position in the explorer
- Computed from a committed ephemeris
Fields this body’s record does not carry are left out entirely rather than filled in with a placeholder or a zero.
Derived figures
Missions to Sun
- Committed missions
- 17
- First launch
- Latest launch
- Concluded missions
- 8
- Recorded a success
- 6
- Success rate
- 75%
Active missions are excluded from the success rate: a live mission has no outcome yet, so counting it would report a rate the records do not support. 9 of the 17 records are still active, leaving 8 concluded. A partial success is a distinct recorded outcome, so it is not counted in the numerator, but it stays in the denominator.
| Decade | Missions launched |
|---|---|
| 1960s | |
| 1970s | |
| 1980s | |
| 1990s | |
| 2000s | |
| 2010s | |
| 2020s |
Who went
Agencies
A joint mission is counted under every agency its record lists, so these figures need not add up to 17.
What they did
Mission types
- Heliophysics
- 17
A mission can carry several types, so these figures need not add up either. Types no mission here carries are omitted.
How they ended
Outcomes
- Success
- 6
- Partial success
- 2
- Failure
- 0
- Active
- 9
Which ones
Every committed mission to Sun
Every record counted above, in launch order — earliest first, with missions that share a launch date ordered by name.
Keep going
These records in the directory
The directory's Sun destination filter selects exactly the records counted above.
View all 17 Sun missionsThe explorer draws a flight path only where a trajectory dataset is committed. None of the records above carries a committed trajectory dataset, so the explorer has no Sun path to draw and this page offers no link to one.