"We've come so far in space exploration in just the past 10 years! Young readers know that NASA sends spacecrafts to space regularly. They may even hear in the news about the incredible photographs and information they send back. But do they know how they work once they're released into space?"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes index.

What are space probes? -- Starting the space age -- Landers -- Orbiter -- All good orbits come to an end -- Flybys -- Voyager -- Voyager's golden record -- Phone home -- Spirit and Opportunity -- Probe problems part 1: smashed samples -- Probe problems part 2: metric mix-up -- Hard out there for a probe.