Satellite Animations

  • Released Tuesday, January 24th, 2023
  • Updated Monday, February 13th, 2023 at 12:00AM
  • ID: 40455

Overview

A collection of spacecraft beauty pass animations for current missions.

Astrophysics Missions

Heliophysics Missions

  • Ace Spacecraft
    ID: 20158
    Animation

    ACE HD

  • Animation depicting GOLD on the SES-14 satellite in transit to geostationary orbit. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Chris Meaney
    ID: 20275
    Animation

    GOLD on SES-14 Animation

  • IBEX Beauty pass one
    ID: 20131
    Animation

    Interstellar Boundry Explorer (IBEX)

  • Beauty pass showing ICON observing the ionosphere. Credit: NASA/GSFC/CIL
    ID: 20265
    Animation

    ICON Beauty Pass

  • A video showing the deployment of the Pegasus Rocket with the observatory from the Orbital L1011.The rocket is dropped from the L1011 and is in unpowered, guided flight for 5 secThe first stage lights and burns for 72 sec, then coasts for 17 sec. The rocket is at 71km prior to lighting of the second stage.The second stage lights and burns for 73 sec, then coasts for 37 sec. The fairing separates at 131 sec. The rocket is at 600km prior to the firing of the third stageThird stage burns for 69 sec placing the observatory in orbit at approximately 660km.Once the payload is at 660km, the third stage and payload separate, at 786 seconds and the third stage carries out maneuvers to clear the observatory orbit.The observatory then deploys the solar arrays, acquires the sun, and begins a 30 day on-orbit checkout and commissioning phase. After a 21 day outgassing and checkout period, the front door is opened and checkout of the optical systems started.Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Conceptural Image Lab
    ID: 11089
    Produced Video

    IRIS Launch, Deploy and Beauty Passes

  • Animated Sequence Of Parker Solar ProbeCredit: NASA/JHUAPL
    ID: 12729
    Produced Video

    Parker Solar Probe Animations

  • MMS beauty pass showing 4 observatories on the dayside.
    ID: 20210
    Animation

    MMS Spacecraft Animation

  • Beauty Pass of RBSP Animation
    ID: 10937
    Produced Video

    RBSP Animation

  • Solar Dynamic Observatory in orbit around the Earth
    ID: 10538
    Produced Video

    SDO Beauty Pass

  • Beauty pass animation of the SET mission on the DSX spacecraft.
    ID: 13225
    Produced Video

    SET Beauty Pass Animation

  • SOHO Beauty Pass
    ID: 20230
    Animation

    Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)

  • a 360 degree tour around the Solar-B spacecraft as it hangs above the Earth
    ID: 20156
    Animation

    Solar - B (Hinode) Spacecraft

  • Facing the Sun Part 2- Video During its closest approaches of the Sun, Solar Orbiter will be travelling fast enough to study how magnetically active regions evolve for up to four weeks at a time. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab
    ID: 13505
    Produced Video

    Solar Orbiter - ESA Animations

  • A close-up view of the SORCE satellite in orbit.
    ID: 20076
    Animation

    SORCE Beauty Pass

  • A coronal mass ejection (CME) erupts from the Sun and sends Type II radio bursts ahead of it. SunRISE measures the radio bursts and transmits the data to NASA’s Deep Space Network. Type II radio bursts are the earliest indicators of shocks from a solar eruption and can provide information on solar energetic particle (SEP) events.
    ID: 20338
    Animation

    SunRISE Beauty Pass

  • Left Camera
    ID: 20103
    Animation

    STEREO Fly-by

  • The five THEMIS spacecraft in orbit around the Earth
    ID: 20087
    Animation

    THEMIS Beauty Pass

  • CME passing Voyager
    ID: 20042
    Animation

    Voyager Meets a Coronal Mass Ejection

  • Voyager 2 animation
    ID: 20130
    Animation

    Voyager 2

Earth Science Missions

  • Animation depicting the Aura satellite collecting (simulated) OMI data over the earth.
    ID: 2948
    Visualization

    Simulated Aura/OMI Data Collection

  • A beauty pass of the CALIPSO spacecraft.
    ID: 12191
    Produced Video

    CALIPSO Spacecraft Beauty Passes

  • Cloudsat traversing Earth
    ID: 20147
    Animation

    Cloudsat

  • Animation of the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) instrument, as installed on the ISS, showing the three lasers, which are split into 4 beams that alternate to give 8 footprints across a 4.2 km swath when they hit the ground. The animation ends with an illustration of a laser pulse interacting with a multi-level forest canopy and the ground, culminating in an example of the waveform that is generated by the return of reflected photons to GEDI.
    ID: 13090
    Produced Video

    GEDI Media Resources

  • GOES Animation - Beauty Shot
    ID: 10413
    Produced Video

    GOES Spacecraft Animations and Print Still Images

  • GOES-T Overview and Upcoming Launch Music: "Spacey Wave," by JC Lemay [SACEM]; Koka; Universal Production MusicAdditional footage provided by Lockheed Martin
    ID: 14073
    Produced Video

    GOES-T Overview and Beauty Shots

  • Various beauty passes of the GPM Core spacecraft.
    ID: 11392
    Produced Video

    GPM Core Spacecraft Beauty Passes

  • High resolution print graphic of the spacecraft above the Earth.
    ID: 11712
    Produced Video

    ICESat-2 Beauty Pass

  • An artist's conception of the Landsat 9 spacecraft, the ninth satellite launched in the long-running Landsat program, high above the Western US.
    ID: 13259
    Produced Video

    Landsat 9 Spacecraft Animations and Stills

  • A shot of LDCM over Earth
    ID: 20205
    Animation

    LDCM Deploy and Beauty Pass

  • Beauty pass of the NOAA-N Prime satellite.
    ID: 20178
    Animation

    NOAA-N Prime Beauty Shot Animation

  • This animation shows the spacecraft rotating on an alpha channel.
    ID: 12469
    Produced Video

    PACE Satellite Animations

  • Animation of SMAP launching and collecting data. SMAP will produce global maps of soil moisture. Animation from NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    ID: 11741
    Produced Video

    Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Live Shot Page 1.29.15

  • Terra Beauty 1
    ID: 10541
    Produced Video

    Terra Spacecraft

  • As a Venture Class mission, TROPICS is comprised of a constellation of 3 unit (3U) SmallSats, each hosting a 12-channel passive microwave spectrometer. TROPICS will provide imagery near 91 and 205 GHz, temperature sounding near 118 GHz, and moisture sounding near 183 GHz. Spatial resolution at nadir will be around 27 km for temperature and 17 km for moisture and precipitation with a swath width of approximately 2000 km. The primary mission objective of TROPICS is to relate temperature, humidity, and precipitation structure to the evolution of tropical cyclone intensity.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
    ID: 20345
    Animation

    TROPICS Mission Animations

Planetary Missions

  • PNG pulses, GRS detects radiation
    ID: 20311
    Animation

    Dragonfly Animation Resource Page

  • Juno during its outbound cruise to Jupiter. Available with and without text.
    ID: 20321
    Animation

    Juno Interplanetary Dust: Animations

  • LADEE over the lunar surface with LLCD instrument
    ID: 20202
    Animation

    LADEE Spacecraft Animations

  • LRO Beauty Shot
    ID: 20369
    Animation

    LRO Beauty Shots

  • Lucy flies by its final target, the binary asteroid Patroclus/Menoetius. When it completes this flyby, Lucy will have visited an unprecedented seven asteroids.
    ID: 20301
    Animation

    Lucy Mission Animations

  • Animation showing Lucy spacecraft being released, deploying it's solar arrays and starting it's journey towards the trojan asteroids.
    ID: 20346
    Animation

    Lucy Deployment Animations

  • Beauty pass of MAVEN at Mars
    ID: 20213
    Animation

    MAVEN Mars Orbital Insertion and Instrument Deploys

  • Stellar Navigation
    ID: 20286
    Animation

    OSIRIS-REx Mission Design: Cruise and Arrival Animations

  • Data-driven animation showing how the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft impacted asteroid Bennu's surface when it touched down and collected a sample.
    ID: 20360
    Animation

    Thirty Seconds on Asteroid Bennu: Animation

  • OSIRIS-REx leaving Bennu, returning to Earth.
    ID: 20337
    Animation

    OSIRIS-REx Farewell to Bennu: Animation

  • Real-time animation of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-And-Go (TAG) Event. This animation accurately depicts the spacecraft's journey to the surface of Bennu.
    ID: 20326
    Animation

    OSIRIS-REx TAG Event: Real-time Animation

Communications Satellites

Past Missions

  • Aquarius 2006 Beauty Shot 1
    ID: 20144
    Animation

    Aquarius

  • CHIPSat passes along the equator
    ID: 20159
    Animation

    CHIPSat Spacecraft

  • CNOFS space craft beauty pass
    ID: 10354
    Produced Video

    CNOFS beauty pass

  • EO-1 Overhead View
    ID: 20161
    Animation

    EO-1 Spacecraft

  • Firefly will pass over a large number of thunderstorms throughout its one year lifetime, and will provide the first simultaneous measurements of lightning and the gamma rays it can produce.
    ID: 10647
    Produced Video

    Firefly Beauty Pass

  • Goes in geostationary orbit over the Earth
    ID: 20149
    Animation

    GOES-M

  • The primary goal of the GRACE mission is to accurately map variations in the Earth's gravity field over its 5-year lifetime.
    ID: 10480
    Produced Video

    GRACE Beauty Pass Animations

  • ICESat's collector viewed with Earth reflecting in its lens
    ID: 10518
    Produced Video

    ICESat Spacecraft

  • IXO Spacecraft
    ID: 10534
    Produced Video

    IXO Spacecraft

  • An artist's depiction of the Landsat 7 spacecraft in orbit around the Earth. Beauty Pass 1.
    ID: 10519
    Produced Video

    Landsat 7 Spacecraft Animations

  • Polar Spacecraft in orbit
    ID: 20164
    Animation

    POLAR Spacecraft in orbit

  • QUIKToms in orbit
    ID: 20167
    Animation

    QuikTOMS Spacecraft

  • RHESSI over Earth
    ID: 20163
    Animation

    RHESSI Spacecraft

  • Spartan 201
    ID: 20168
    Animation

    Spartan 201

  • Suzaku orbiting Earth beauty pass.
    ID: 10533
    Produced Video

    Suzaku (formerly Astro-E2) Spacecraft

  • An image showing a sequential set of TRMM data swaths on a globe along with the TRMM satellite.
    ID: 175
    Visualization

    TRMM Data Swath Close-up View (TRMM Ride)

  • WMAP spins like a top to capture light from every part of the sky.
    ID: 10121
    Produced Video

    The WMAP Spacecraft