The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, is a multipurpose NASA spacecraft launched in 2009 to make a comprehensive atlas of the Moon’s features and resources. Since launch, LRO has measured the coldest temperatures in the solar system inside the Moon’s permanently shadowed craters, detected evidence of water ice at the Moon’s south pole, seen hints of recent geologic activity on the Moon, found newly-formed craters from present-day meteorite impacts, tested spaceborne laser communication technology, and much more.

Earth Observing Fleet (June 2018) shows the orbits of NASA's fleet of Earth observing spacecraft that are considered operational as of June 2018. New elements in this version include the GRACE Follow-On 1 and 2. The clouds used in this version are from a high resolution GEOS model run at 10 minute time steps interpolated down to the per-frame level.

Since 1972, Landsat satellites have consistently gathered data about our planet for the benefit of the U.S. and the world. The Landsat data archive is the longest continuous remotely sensed global record of Earth’s surface, with all the data free and available to the public. The Landsat satellite missions, jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, are a central pillar of our national remote sensing capability and established the U.S. as a leader in land imaging.

Formerly known as WFIRST, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, the Roman Space Telescope is a NASA observatory designed to perform wide field imaging and surveys of the near infrared (NIR) sky. The current design of the mission makes use of an existing 2.4m telescope, which is the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope. The Roman Space Telescope is the top-ranked large space mission in the New Worlds, New Horizon Decadal Survey of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The Wide Field Instrument will provide a field of view of the sky that is 100 times larger than images provided by HST. The coronagraph will enable astronomers to detect and measure properties of planets in other solar systems.

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory provides astronomers with a unique tool for exploring many different classes of astronomical phenomena, from gamma-ray bursts and supernovae to spinning neutron stars, outbursts from black holes, and even exoplanets, comets and asteroids. These pages gather together media products associated with Swift news releases.