Scroll down to view all space missions that took place between 1985 and 1989 or select another time period from the table below.
| 1955 - 1959 | 1960 - 1964 | 1965 - 1969 | 1970 - 1974 | 1975 - 1979 | 1980 - 1984 |
| 1985 - 1989 | 1990 - 1994 | 1995 - 1999 | 2000 - 2004 | 2005 - PRESENT | FUTURE |
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There weren't many missions during the last five years of the 1980s. A Space Shuttle disaster in 1986 delayed the program and appeared to affect other missions, whereas political changes in the USSR/Russia meant that they turned their focus away from space exploration. |
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| LAUNCH DATE | NAME | DESTINATION | COUNTRY | MISSION DETAILS | MAIN ACHIEVEMENT | CURRENT STATUS | |
| 28th January 1986 | Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51-L) | Earth | USA |
The mission would have been the first to have a civilian on board (teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe). It was the 25th Space Shuttle Mission but shortly after launch, the spacecraft exploded. The shuttle broke up and the seven astronauts onboard lost their lives. | First space shuttle disaster. | Space craft broke up after 73 seconds resulting in the destruction of the space shuttle and the loss of lives of the seven astronauts. | |
| 20th February 1986 | Mir Space Station | Earth |
USSR/Russia
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Soviet Space Station Mir was launched into orbit. The Space Station was built in modules with parts still being added up to 1996. The space station was continuously occupied for almost ten years with crews being rotated regularly. The Soviet/Russian Soyuz spacecraft and American Space Shuttles took supplies and new crew to the space station. Mir was eventually taken out of orbit in 2001 as Russia committed itself to assisting in the development of the International Space Station, unable to get funding to maintain and repair the aging Mir space station. | Maintains the record for supporting human life in space for the longest period of time (8 days short of ten years). | Mir was taken out of orbit on 23rd March 2001. Most of the space station burned up during re-entry but some fragments fell into the South Pacific. | |
| 13th March 1986 | Giotto | Halley's Comet and Grigg-Skjelluerup Comet |
Europe |
Giotto was sent to complete a flyby of the comet Halley during its most recent close approach to Earth. Despite being hit by particles falling from the comet, Giotto successfully imaged the comet and its nucleus on 14th March 1986. Further impacts damaged its camera. The craft was switched off on 15th March 1986 but turned back on 2nd July 1990 to be sent to another comet by slingshotting from Earth. It flew by the comet Grigg-Skjellerup on 10th July 1992 and was switched off again on 23rd July 1992. | Best images of Halley's comet. First craft to do a close flyby of two comets. First craft to return from interplanetary space on complete Earth swing by. First space craft to be placed into hibernation mode and successfully reactivated. | The craft last completed an fly-by of Earth in 1999 but was not switched back on. | |
| 7th July 1988 | Phobos 1 | Mars |
USSR, with cooperation from 14 other
nations including the USA |
Thirteen years after the last mission to Mars, the Soviets tried again to visit the Red Planet and its moons. Phobos 1 and 2 used the location of the Sun and stars to orient itself. While on its way to Mars, the software on the probe suffered an error which caused it to lose its lock on the Sun. This meant that the sunlight failed to reach the solar panels which kept the batteries charged and the craft lost the power to continue with its mission. | Phobos 1 was an early sign of future international cooperation in space missions. | Contact lost late August/early September 1988. | |
| 12th July 1988 | Phobos 2 | Mars |
USSR |
Twin mission of Phobos 1. The craft successfully entered Mars orbit on 29th January 1989 but contact was lost just before two landers were about to be released to land on Mars' moon, Phobos. The instruction to release the landers couldn't be communicated and the missions ended on 27th March 1989. Phobos 2 did however send some data and information back about Mars and its moons, the Sun, and the interplanetary space between Earth and Mars. | Final Soviet mission to Mars. | Contact lost 27th March 1989. The craft remains in orbit around Mars. | |
| 4th May 1989 | Magellan 4 | Venus | USA |
Highly successful mapping mission to produce high resolution images of the entire surface of Venus. Radar imaging allowed the space craft to "see" through Venus' thick cloud cover and revealed a mountainous, volcanic planet. | First probe to be launched from a Space Shuttle (Atlantis) | Radio contact ended on 12th October 1994, Magellan was dropped into Venus' atmosphere and vapourised. Some parts of the space craft may have landed on the planet's surface. | |
| 18th October 1989 | Galileo | Jupiter |
USA |
Orbiter launched from the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Destined for Jupiter, it built up speed by gravitational assist flybys of Earth and Venus. It took 6 years to reach Jupiter, arriving there on 7th December 1995. On its way through the Asteroid Belt, it flew by the asteroids Gaspra and Ida, and discovered the first asteroid moon, Dactyl, orbiting Ida. It was close enough to Jupiter to witness the collision of the Shoemaker-Levy comet in 1994. As well as orbiting Jupiter, Galileo made close visits to the moons Europa and Io, going as close as 180 kilometres to Io on 15th October 2001. Galileo also contained a probe which was released into Jupiter's atmosphere in 1995, sending back information from inside the planet's atmosphere until the probe vapourised. Galileo itself was dropped into Jupiter's atmosphere 21st September 2003 to avoid a collision with any of Jupiter's moons and possible contamination of the moon (in particular Europa) with Earth bacteria. | . | Mission terminated when Galileo was deorbited and fell into Jupiter's atmosphere to be destroyed. | |
| 1955 - 1959 | 1960 - 1964 | 1965 - 1969 | 1970 - 1974 | 1975 - 1979 | 1980 - 1984 |
| 1985 - 1989 | 1990 - 1994 | 1995 - 1999 | 2000 - 2004 | 2005 - PRESENT | FUTURE |
