January 31 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of the launch of the Explorer-1 spacecraft and 60 years of Earth observations from space. This visualization shows the orbits of NASA-related near-Earth science missions from the launch of Explorer-1 in 1958 through 2017. These missions include both NASA-run missions as well as missions run by organizations that NASA has partnered with. Twenty-four of these missions are called out as "firsts" in various ways. The following missions are highlighted in green as "firsts": Explorer-1 first satellite launched by US Vanguard-1 first solar-powered satellite Tiros-1 first weather satellite Nimbus-1 first in series that provided 30 years of Earth observations ATS-1 : Applications Technology Satellite first full-disk Earth images from geosynchronous orbit Apollo-8 first humans to orbit Moon; Earthrise photo Landsat-1 first in a series providing continuous coverage of Earth's land Skylab first combined active/passive microwave sensor (RADSCAT) Seasat-1 first oceanographic satellite ERBS : Earth Radiation Budget Satellite ozone data was key in Montreal Protocol Agreement TOPEX/Poseidon : Ocean Topography Experiment first in a series providing continuous record of global sea levels SeaWiFS : Sea-Viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor first to measure global biosphere TRMM : Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission first 3-d views of storms from space Terra first spacecraft of Earth Observing System (EOS) SRTM : Shuttle Radar Topography Mission first near-global data set of land elevations GRACE : Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment first mission to map Earth's gravity field over time Aqua first spacecraft in Afternoon train (A-train) ICESat : Ice, Cloud,and land Elevation Satellite first continuous laser-altimetry of Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets CALIPSO : Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation first global survey of cloud and aerosol profiles from 2 spacecraft Cloudsat synergistic cloud observations from 2 spacecraft Aquarius first dedicated sea surface salinity measurements GPM : Global Precipitation Measurement first near-global precipitation observations OCO-2 : Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 first high-precision global measurements of CO2 SMAP : Soil Moisture Passive Active first NASA soil moisture satellite DSCOVR : Deep Space Climate Observatory first continuous daytime observations from L1 Other missions that are not highlighted: CYGNSS-1-8 : Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 1 Aura GOES 1 - 16 : Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites ISS : International Space Station Jason 2 Jason 3 LAGEOS Laser Geodynamic Satellite Landsat 7 Landsat 8 QuikSCAT Quick Scatterometer SORCE : Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment Suomi NPP : Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Explorer-3 Explorer-4 Explorer-6 Explorer-7 Explorer-8 Explorer-9 Explorer-12 Nimbus-2 Nimbus-3 Nimbus-4 Nimbus-5 Nimbus-6 Nimbus-7 CINDI> : Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigation Vanguard-2 Vanguard-3 SMS-1 : Synchronous Meteorological Satellite-1 SMS-2 : Synchronous Meteorological Satellite-2 EO-1 : Earth Observing mission 1) EUVE : Extreme-Ultraviolet Explorer Jason-1 Landsat-2 Landsat-3 Landsat-4 Landsat-5 UARS : Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite EP-TOMS : Earth Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer TIROS-2 : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-2 TIROS-3 : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-3 TIROS-4 : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-4 TIROS-5 : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-5 TIROS-6 : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-6 TIROS-7 : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-7 TIROS-8 : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-8 TIROS-9 : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-9 TIROS-10 : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-10 TIROS-M : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-N TIROS-N : Television and InfraRed Observation Satellite-M ATS-2 : Applications Technology Satellite-2 ATS-3 : Applications Technology Satellite-3 ATS-4 : Applications Technology Satellite-4 ATS-6 : Applications Technology Satellite-6 DE-1 : Dynamics Explorer-1 DE-2 : Dynamics Explorer-2 STS-2 : Space Shuttle Office of Space and Terrestrial Application SAGE : Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment Also included: Stars Moon Sun Earth L1: Sun-Earth Lagrange Point-1 NOTE: 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.
from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio: Most Recent Items http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=4600
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