NASA's Near-Earth Science Mission Fleet: March 2017

This visualization shows the orbits of NASA-related near-Earth science missions that are considered operational as of March 2017. These missions include both NASA-run missions as well as missions run by organizations that NASA has partnered with. Missions that enable science data collection (TDRS) are also included. The following missions are included: ACE AIM Aqua ARTEMIS Aura CALIPSO : Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation Cloudsat Cluster 5,6,7,8 Chandra CYGNSS-1-8 : Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 1 DSCOVR : Deep Space Climate Observatory GOES 13, 15, 16 : Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites GPM : Global Precipitation Measurement GRACE-1 : Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-1 GRACE-2 : Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment-2 Hinode HST : Hubble Space Telescope IBEX : Interstellar Boundary Explorer ISS : International Space Station Jason 2 Jason 3 LAGEOS Landsat 7 Landsat 8 LRO : Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter MMS 1,2,3,4 : Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission NuSTAR : Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array OCO-2 : Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 Polar QuikSCAT RBSP A,B : Radiation Belt Solar Probes (also called Van Allen Probes) RHESSI : Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Images SDO : Solar Dynamics Observatory SMAP : Soil Moisture Passive Active SMAP : Solar and Heliophysics Observatory SORCE : Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment Suomi NPP : Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Swift TDRS 3, 5-12 : Tracking Data Relay Satellite Terra THEMIS : Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions During Substorms TIMED : Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics Wind Also included: Stars Moon Sun Earth L1: Sun-Earth Lagrange Point-1 L2: Sun-Earth Lagrange Point-2 Colors are used to distinguish what science category each mission is observing. In some cases, one mission may observe multiple categories (e.g., DSCOVR observes the Sun and the Earth), so only one is choosen. The colors are: Yellow orbits are missions that observe the sun (heliophysics) Blue orbits are missions that observe the Earth Red orbits are missions that observe the stars and planets (astrophysics) Orange orbits are "other" The green orbit is manned (International Space Station) 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.

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