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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Missions → GOES-17 (operational)

US federal civilian space agency, established October 1958 under the National Aeronautics and Space Act, headquartered in Washington DC. Operates Earth observation missions through 20 field centres, primarily Goddard Space Flight Center (Terra, Aqua, GEDI, Landsat 8/9 space segment) for forestry-relevant work. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, separate EO-Atlas slug nasa-jpl) handles distinct radar and OPERA programmes. NASA is not a commercial manufacturer; for hardware-builder FKs see Ball Aerospace (acquired by BAE Systems 2023) on OLI and OLI-2.

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is the United States' independent federal space agency, established 1 October 1958 under the National Aeronautics and Space Act. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it operates through six mission directorates; Earth observation programs fall under the Science Mission Directorate's Earth Science Division, which manages a fleet of more than 20 satellites in orbit as of 2026.[1]

NASA's largest EO partnership is with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): the two agencies jointly manage the Landsat program. NASA funds and builds spacecraft while USGS operates the satellites and archives data at the EROS Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Landsat 8 (launched 2013) and Landsat 9 (launched 2021) are the current operational pair, providing 30-meter multispectral coverage with an eight-day repeat cycle when combined.[2] Data access is free and open, a policy formalised in 2008.

NASA developed MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), flying on Terra (1999) and Aqua (2002), which established the daily global surface observation record still used for land cover, fire, sea surface temperature, and aerosol products. VIIRS, the follow-on instrument, flies on the joint NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP mission and the operational NOAA JPSS series (NOAA-20, NOAA-21), continuing this observational record.[3][4]

On the International Space Station, NASA operates three EO instruments: GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation, 2018), a lidar measuring forest canopy height and biomass; ECOSTRESS (2018), a thermal radiometer detecting plant water stress at field scale; and EMIT (2022), an imaging spectrometer mapping surface mineral composition in arid regions and detecting methane and carbon dioxide point sources.[5]

The Harmonized Landsat-Sentinel (HLS) product, developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and produced at Marshall Space Flight Center, combines Landsat 8/9 and ESA Sentinel-2 observations into a unified 30-meter analysis-ready surface reflectance time series with approximately 1.4-day global revisit.[6]

NASA co-operates the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite (launched 2020) in partnership with ESA, EUMETSAT, CNES, NOAA, and the European Commission for continuous sea-level monitoring; Sentinel-6B launched in November 2025. NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), launched 30 July 2025, is a dual-frequency L- and S-band SAR developed jointly with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), with data archived at the Alaska Satellite Facility DAAC.[7]

Gravitational field observations come from the GRACE-FO mission (launched 2018), a partnership between NASA and GFZ (German Research Centre for Geosciences, Helmholtz Association), which measures water mass redistribution including groundwater, ice sheets, and sea level change. SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive, 2015) provides global soil moisture and freeze/thaw maps via its L-band radiometer. ICESat-2 (2018) carries the ATLAS photon-counting lidar for ice sheet, glacier, and land elevation monitoring.[8][9]

NASA distributes all Earth observation data openly and at no cost through EOSDIS, a network of twelve Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) hosted at partner institutions. Key archives include LP DAAC (land processes, operated jointly with USGS; >14 petabytes), PO.DAAC at JPL (physical oceanography), ASF DAAC at the University of Alaska (SAR), and LAADS DAAC at GSFC (MODIS and VIIRS global products).[10]

NASA-JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) is catalogued as a separate EO-Atlas entity (slug: nasa-jpl). JPL is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center managed by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) under a NASA contract. It designs and operates several NASA EO missions, including ECOSTRESS, EMIT, SMAP, GRACE-FO, and Sentinel-6 data products, but is not a NASA organisational unit.

Where this fits, supply chain

Compositional position

GOES-17 ——— this related

Operates

  • Aquadegraded

    launched "2002-05-04T00:00:00.000Z" / Sun-synchronous, originally 705 km / 1:30 PM ascending; in free-drift since December 2021 (altitude descending, crossing time drifting later); inclination 98.2 degrees / 1 day revisit / 2330 km swath

  • EMIT ISS deploymentextended

    launched "2022-07-14T00:00:00.000Z" / ISS orbit, approximately 407 km altitude, 51.6 degree inclination, non-sun-synchronous / 80 km swath

  • GEDI ISS deploymentextended

    launched "2018-12-05T00:00:00.000Z" / ISS orbit, about 407 km altitude, 51.6 degree inclination, non-sun-synchronous

  • Terradegraded

    launched "1999-12-18T00:00:00.000Z" / Sun-synchronous, 705 km nominal (drifted to about 693 km since October 2022), 98.5 degree inclination, originally 10:30 AM LTDN now drifted to about 9:06 AM as of December 2025 / 1 day revisit / 2330 km swath

  • ICESat-2extended

    launched 2018-09-15 / LEO, near-polar frozen orbit, 496 km, 92 degrees inclination / 91 day revisit

  • ICESatended

    launched 2003-01-12 / LEO, near-polar frozen orbit, 591 km, 94 degrees inclination / 91 day revisit

  • CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations)ended

    launched 2006-04-28 / LEO sun-synchronous, 685 km, 98.2 deg inclination

  • CATS ISS deploymentended

    launched 2015-01-10 / ISS orbit, about 407 km altitude, 51.6 degree inclination, non-sun-synchronous

  • STS-64 (Space Shuttle Discovery)ended

    launched 1994-09-09

  • STS-72 (Space Shuttle Endeavour)ended

    launched 1996-01-11 / LEO, 296 km, 28.45 degrees inclination

  • STS-85 (Space Shuttle Discovery)ended

    launched 1997-08-07 / LEO, 278 km, 51.6 degrees inclination

  • SMAPextended

    launched 2015-01-31 / Sun-synchronous dawn/dusk, 685 km, LTAN 18:00, inclination 98 degrees, 8-day repeat, 98.5-minute period / 3 day revisit / 1000 km swath

  • GRACEended

    launched 2002-03-17 / Twin near-polar low Earth orbiters separated by about 220 km

  • GRACE-FOoperational

    launched 2018-05-22 / Twin near-polar low Earth orbiters separated by about 220 km

  • CYGNSS (Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System)operational

    launched 2016-12-15 / LEO 520 km, 35 deg inclination (non-SSO) / 1480 km swath

  • OCO-2 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2)operational

    launched 2014-07-02 / SSO 705 km 98.2-degree inclination A-Train

  • OCO-3 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3)operational

    launched 2019-05-04 / ISS orbit 408 km 51.6-degree inclination

  • Auraextended

    launched 2004-07-15 / Sun-synchronous near-polar orbit, 705 km altitude, 98.2 degree inclination, approximately 13:45 ascending equator crossing / 16 day revisit

  • ECOSTRESS ISS deploymentextended

    launched 2018-06-29 / ISS orbit, approximately 400 km altitude, 51.5 degree inclination, non-sun-synchronous / 384 km swath

  • Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT)operational

    launched 2022-12-16 / Non-sun-synchronous drifting orbit, 891 km altitude, 78 deg inclination, 21-day repeat / 11 day revisit / 120 km swath

  • LAGEOS-1 (Laser Geodynamics Satellite)operational

    launched 1976-05-04 / Inclined non-sun-synchronous medium Earth orbit, about 5900 km altitude

  • CloudSatended

    launched 2006-04-28 / Sun-synchronous LEO, about 705 km

  • GPM Core Observatoryextended

    launched 2014-02-27 / Circular non-sun-synchronous low Earth orbit; 65 deg inclination; raised to about 442 km in November 2023 / 904 km swath

  • PACEoperational

    launched 2024-02-08 / Sun-synchronous polar orbit; 676.5 km altitude; 98 deg inclination; 13:00 local equatorial crossing time / 2 day revisit

Manufactures

Sensors
Components

Distributes

Sources
Cite https://eo-atlas.org/companies/nasa Markdown twin → Field definitions →