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What's New?
September 21, 2011

Twenty Six NASA science spacecraft have been added to the list of available satellites. All of these spacecraft are currently operating and providing a wealth of scientific information to the world. As future spacecraft are placed into low Earth orbit, they will be added as well.

Note that these spacecraft are not nearly as large as the ISS and as such, will be not be as bright and will be challenging to see. We recommend that you allow at least 5 minutes outside before the sighting for your eyes to adjust to the darkness prior to an attempt to view any of these spacecraft.

As for now, the following spacecraft are listed:


ADEOS-II : The ADEOS-II (SeaWinds) scatterometer is a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind velocity (both speed and direction) under all weather and cloud conditions over Earth's oceans. This is a twin sister to the QuikSCAT sensor and flies on the Japanese ADEOS-II Spacecraft to provide similar observations beyond the QuikSCAT mission.


Aqua : Aqua will obtain precise atmosphere and ocean measurements to understand their role in Earth's climate and its variations. Aqua carries six state-of-the-art instruments to observe the Earth's oceans, atmosphere, land, ice and snow covers, and vegetation.

Aquarius : Aquarius is a focused satellite mission to measure global sea surface salinity (SSS). By measuring SSS over the globe with such unprecedented precision, Aquarius will answer long-standing questions about how our oceans respond to climate change and the water cycle.

CALIPSO : The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) spacecraft was developed to help scientists answer significant questions and provide new information about the effects of clouds and aerosols (airborne particles) on changes in the Earth's climate



GALEX : The Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) is an orbiting space telescope that observes galaxies in ultraviolet light.

GRACE-1 and GRACE-2 : The GRACE mission is to accurately map variations in the Earth's gravity field. The GRACE mission has two identical spacecraft flying about 220 kilometers apart in a polar orbit 500 kilometers above the Earth.

Hinode : Hinode (formerly known as Solar-B) is a highly sophisticated observational satellite equipped with three advanced solar telescopes.

HST : The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a telescope that orbits Earth. Its position above the atmosphere, which distorts and blocks the light that reaches our planet, gives it a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of ground-based telescopes.

Jason-1 and Jason-2 : Jason-1 is an oceanography mission to monitor global ocean circulation, improve global climate predictions, and monitor events such as El Nino conditions and ocean eddies. The Jason-2 satellite is an international Earth observation satellite mission that continues the sea surface height measurements begun in 1992 by the joint NASA/CNES TOPEX/Poseidon mission and followed by the NASA/CNES Jason-1 mission.


ORBVIEW-2 : The ORBVIEW-2 (SeaStar) satellite carries the SeaWiFS instrument which is designed to monitor the color of the world's oceans. Various ocean colors indicate the presence of different types and quantities of marine phytoplankton, which play a role in the exchange of critical elements and gases between the atmosphere and oceans.


RHESSI : The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager (RHESSI) scientific objective is to understand solar impulsive energy release, particale acceleration, and particle and energy transport.



Suzaku : Suzaku, formerly known as NeXT, is Japan's fifth X-ray astronomy mission, and was developed at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (ISAS/JAXA) in collaboration with U.S. (NASA/GSFC, MIT) and Japanese institutions.



TIMED : The Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) spacecraft explores the Earth's Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (60-180 kilometers up), the least explored and understood region of our atmosphere.


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Curator: Kim Dismukes | Responsible NASA Official: Amiko Kauderer | Updated: 09/22/2011
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