NASA’s Voyager 1 discovered Saturn’s moon Pandora in 1980.
Voyager 1 was a NASA robotic spacecraft launched in 1977 to study the outer planets. During its Saturn encounter in November 1980, its images revealed several previously unknown moons, including Pandora. The discovery added a small shepherd moon to the complicated environment of Saturn’s F ring.
NASA’s Voyager program was conducted with scientific participation from institutions in several countries, but Voyager 1 itself is a NASA mission. ESA, JAXA, and Roscosmos have operated important planetary missions of their own, yet none is credited with discovering Saturn’s moon Pandora.
Pandora was later named for the Greek mythological figure. In astronomy, mythological names are common for moons and planets, so the name does not indicate that the object is associated with any particular spacecraft or fictional universe.