Space Missions for Exoplanet Research: Overview and Introduction

This chapter makes a brief summary of the space-based research in exoplanetology during the last 25 years that is described in detail in the other chapters of this section. In this period, research from space has made important if not the most important advances to this field. These activities are destined to continue during the next 10-20 years with promises of eventually leading up to research placing the Earth and the life on it into the greater context of the Universe we live in.