Learning path

Understanding Space Institutions

Who builds and flies the spacecraft — the space agencies, field centers, laboratories, and companies of the space enterprise, and how they fit together. Built on real organizations from NASA, ESA, and JAXA; nothing is fabricated.

Beginner

1.1The institutions of spaceflightAgencies, field centers, laboratories, and companies — and how they connect.
1.2Space agenciesThe government bodies that fund and run space programs.
1.3A field center: GoddardHow a space agency's work is split across specialised centres.
1.4Field centersThe centres of NASA, ESA, and JAXA, each with its own role.

Intermediate

2.1Mission Control: JohnsonWhere human spaceflight is trained and flown.
2.2The Applied Physics LaboratoryThe lab behind New Horizons, Parker Solar Probe, and DART.
2.3Laboratories & institutesWho designs, builds, and leads the science of robotic missions.
2.4Europe's technical heart: ESTECWhere almost every ESA spacecraft is engineered and tested.

Advanced

3.1Commercial spaceThe private companies building launch vehicles and spacecraft.
3.2Observatory organisationsWho operates the great ground-based telescopes.
3.3An independent institute: SwRILeading the science of Juno, New Horizons, and Lucy.
3.4JAXA's hub: TsukubaJapan's centre for astronauts and the Kibo module.

Institution type
Space Agency
A national or multinational government body that funds, directs, and carries out a country's space program — from human spaceflight and robotic exploration to Earth observation and launch. NASA, ESA, JAXA, ISRO, Roscosmos, and CNSA are the largest.
Institution type
Field Center
A specialised research and operations centre of a space agency, each focused on a distinct role — building spacecraft, training astronauts, running mission control, testing engines, or launching rockets. NASA and ESA each run a family of them.
Organization
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA's largest centre for Earth and space science, in Greenbelt, Maryland. Goddard builds and operates robotic science missions and manages flagship observatories including Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, whose science operations are run by the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Organization
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a NASA federally funded research and development center in California that builds and operates robotic spacecraft.

Continue learning

History of Astronomy →Understanding Mission Operations →

Loading…

Understanding Space Institutions

Related entities

Space Agency

Field Center

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Continue learning

Understanding Space Institutions

Related entities

Space Agency

Field Center

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Continue learning