Discovery Program

The Discovery Program is a group of space missions to explore the Solar System. It is funded by NASA through its Planetary Missions Program Office. Discovery missions cost less than missions in NASA's New Frontiers or Flagship programs. Because of this, Discovery missions usually focus on one specific scientific goal instead of exploring many topics.

The Discovery program started in 1990 and was founded by NASA administrator Daniel Goldin. It was part of NASA's plan to make space missions faster, cheaper, and better.^[1] In this program, scientists suggest their own ideas for space missions. Experts review the ideas, and NASA chooses the best ones. Each mission is led by a scientist called the principal investigator (PI). Teams for the missions can include people from universities, companies, or government labs.

The program also has "Missions of Opportunity." These missions let NASA work with spacecraft from other space agencies. NASA might add a science tool to another agency’s spacecraft or use one of its own spacecraft in a new way.

As of June 2021, the newest Discovery missions chosen were VERITAS and DAVINCI. These are the 15th and 16th missions in the program.^[2]