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.
11 artificial objects have been identified. Spacecraft that are still in their systemic context, i.e. still operational, are highlighted in bold.
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 |
2014-065A | DFH-3A BUS TEST VEHICULE | Lunar orbital service module | CHANG'E 5-T1 | 1 | EOM, defunct, Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange Point | January 23, 2015 |
2015-007A | DSCOVR (TRIANA, GORESAT) | Solar probe | DEEP SPACE CLIMATE OBSERVATORY (DSCOVR) | 1 | active, Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange Point | June 8, 2015 |
2015-070A | LISA PATHFINDER | Technology demonstrator | LISA (SMART-2) | 1 | EOM, defunct, Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange Point | June 30, 2017 |
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 |
2023-092A | EUCLID | Space telescope | EUCLID (DUNE, DARK UNIVERSE EXPLORER, SPACE, SPECTROSCOPIC ALL SKY COSMIC EXPLORER) | 1 | active, Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange Point | July 1, 2023 |
2023-132A | ADITYA-L1 | Solar probe | ADITYA-L1 | 1 | active, Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange Point | September 2, 2023 |