Non-exhaustive list of artificial objects that were sent to Lagrange points. Spacecraft orbiting these regions are in heliocentric orbit but are trapped in a Hill sphere: while their trajectory describes a circle around the Sun, they stay close to a celestial body as if they were in a high orbit, hence the need for a specific table.
Currently, there are solar observation probes orbiting the Sun-Earth system L1 Lagrange point (the closest to the Sun) and space telescopes at the L2 point (the furthest). Additionally, the Queqiao communications relay satellite is orbiting the Earth-Moon L2 point to support the Chang’e missions on the far side of our satellite.
8 artificial objects have been identified. Spacecraft that are still in their systemic context, i.e. still operational, are highlighted in orange.
COSPAR ID | name | type | mission | quantity | status | date/epoch (UTC) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1994-071A | WIND ISTP (INTERNATIONAL SOLAR TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS) | Solar probe | WIND | 1 | active, Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange Point | May 15, 2004 |
1995-065A | SOHO ISTP (INTERNATIONAL SOLAR TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS) | Solar probe | SOHO | 1 | active, Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange Point | May 15, 1996 |
1997-045A | ACE (ADVANCED COMPOSITION EXPLORER) | Solar probe | ACE (EXPLORER 71) | 1 | active, Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange Point | December 12, 1997 |
2013-074A | GAIA SPACE OBSERVATORY | Space telescope | GAIA | 1 | active, Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange Point | January 8, 2014 |
2015-007A | DSCOVR (TRIANA, GORESAT) | Solar probe | DEEP SPACE CLIMATE OBSERVATORY (DSCOVR) | 1 | active, Sun-Earthn L1 Lagrange Point | June 8, 2015 |
2018-045A | QUEQIAO | Lunar orbiter | QUEQIAO (CHANG'E 4 RELAY) | 1 | active, Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange Point | June 14, 2018 |
2019-040A | eROSITA + ART-XC TELESCOPES | Scientific probe | SPEKTRUM-RONTGEN-GAMMA (SPEKTR-RG) | 1 | active, Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange Point | July 13, 2019 |
2021-130A | JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) | Space telescope | JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) | 1 | active, Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange Point | January 24, 2022 |