New Frontiers program

The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions led by NASA. Its goal is to learn more about our Solar System through exciting scientific discoveries. The program chooses medium-sized missions that can achieve important research goals but are bigger than smaller discovery missions.

NASA invites scientists from around the world to suggest ideas for these missions. The New Frontiers program builds on the success of earlier programs like the Discovery and Explorer Programs, which let scientists lead their own projects. These missions are bigger than Discovery missions but smaller than very large science missions called Large Strategic Science Missions.

Right now, there are three New Frontiers missions exploring space and one being developed. New Horizons flew by Pluto in 2015, Juno studies Jupiter, and OSIRIS-REx collected samples from the asteroid Bennu. In 2019, Dragonfly was chosen to become the next mission in this exciting program.

History

The New Frontiers program was started by NASA and approved by Congress in 2002 and 2003. Two important NASA leaders helped create this program. Before the program began, a mission to Pluto had already been chosen. This mission, called New Horizons, was included in the New Frontiers program.

The idea for the program came from a report in 2003. The program’s name remembers President John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier” speech from 1960. He talked about exploring new places and ideas. President Kennedy also supported NASA a lot.

Scientists suggested many ideas for missions under this program, including exploring places like Pluto, Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, and comets.

Missions in progress

Mission timelines

New Horizons (New Frontiers 1)

Main article: New Horizons

New Horizons is a mission to Pluto. It was launched on January 19, 2006. After using Jupiter for a gravity assist in February 2007, it continued toward Pluto. The main flyby happened on July 14, 2015, and then the spacecraft flew by another object in the Kuiper Belt called 486958 Arrokoth on January 1, 2019.

Juno (New Frontiers 2)

Main article: Juno (spacecraft)

Juno is a mission to explore Jupiter. It launched on August 5, 2011, and arrived in July 2016. It is the first spacecraft to use solar power to explore an outer planet. Juno orbits Jupiter in a polar path to study the planet's magnetic field and internal structure.

OSIRIS-REx (New Frontiers 3)

Main article: OSIRIS-REx

OSIRIS-REx was launched on September 8, 2016. Its goal was to orbit an asteroid named 101955 Bennu by 2020. After studying the asteroid, the spacecraft collected a sample to bring back to Earth in 2023. This sample will help scientists learn more about how the Solar System formed and how life might have started.

Planned missions

Dragonfly (New Frontiers 4)

Main article: Dragonfly (Titan space probe)

Dragonfly will send a mobile robotic rotorcraft to Saturn's biggest moon Titan and will use special power sources to move through Titan's atmosphere. The cost to develop this mission is about $1 billion. As of June 2024, Dragonfly is planned to launch in July 2028.

The competition to choose this fourth mission began in January 2017. NASA asked scientists to suggest six types of missions. In December 2017, NASA picked two ideas for more study, including Dragonfly. In June 2019, NASA chose Dragonfly as the New Frontiers 4 mission, with a launch first planned for 2026 but later moved to July 2028.

New Frontiers 5

In 2011, a group of experts suggested that NASA choose two New Frontiers missions every ten years. By 2023, NASA needed to start planning for New Frontiers 5 but had to delay it because of money issues. In February 2025, a report suggested new mission ideas for New Frontiers 5, including:

• Centaur Orbiter and Lander
• Ceres Sample Return
• Comet Surface Sample Return
• Enceladus Multiple Flyby
• Io Observer
• Lunar Geophysical Network; and
• Saturn Probe

New Frontiers 6 and 7

New Frontiers 6 will likely use ideas from a 2022 report. This could include missions to places like Titan or Venus. New Frontiers 7 might include any leftover ideas from New Frontiers 6, plus a possible mission to study Triton, a moon of Neptune. However, because of timing, a new report might be ready by the time NASA starts choosing New Frontiers 7.