Satellite Animations

BurstCube is a mission under development at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This CubeSat will detect short gamma-ray bursts, which are important sources for gravitational wave discoveries and multimessenger astronomy. The satellite is expected to launch in 2023. || This animation spins BurstCube to reveal the widest sides of the spacecraft. Solar panels appear at left, seen nearly edge on. The side bearing a large, circular hole is the one that will face the sky. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab ||

NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, illustrated here, scans the entire sky every three hours as it orbits Earth.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA/GESTAR) || NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is a powerful space observatory that opens a wide window on the universe. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light, and the gamma-ray sky is spectacularly different from the one we perceive with our own eyes. Fermi enables scientists to answer persistent questions across a broad range of topics, including supermassive black-hole systems, pulsars, the origin of cosmic rays, and searches for signals of new physics. ||

HST in orbit without background stars. || Two new animations commisioned for Hubble Space Telescope's 30th Anniversary showing the observatory in orbit around the Earth. || HST in orbit. || HST in orbit shot 2. ||

"Beauty pass" animation of the Roman Space Telescope spacecraft || Animation video and stills based off the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) design of the Roman Space Telescope spacecraft. || "Beauty pass" animation of the Roman Space Telescope spacecraft || Still frame of spacecraft animation || Still frame of spacecraft animation || Still frame of spacecraft animation || Still frame of spacecraft animation || Still frame of spacecraft animation || Stylized still frame of spacecraft animation ||

Animated video and stills of the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) payload. || Wide angle view and zoom in of the NICER payload onboard the International Space Station. || High resolution (wide angle) animated still image of the NICER payload aboard the International Space Station. || Close up "beauty pass" of the NICER payload onboard the International Space Station. || High resolution (close up) animated still images of the NICER payload aboard the International Space Station. ||

Beauty Pass of TESS spacecraft || The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will discover thousands of exoplanets in orbit around the brightest stars in the sky. In a two-year survey of the solar neighborhood, TESS will monitor more than 200,000 stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. This first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, around a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. No ground-based survey can achieve this feat. ||

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, shown in this illustration, launched into Earth orbit in November 2004. The satellite investigates gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic explosions in the universe. Swift observes the sky in visible, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray light. Its name reflects its ability to rapidly follow up on interesting objects in the sky. Swift also studies supernova explosions, star-shredding black holes in other galaxies, comets, stellar remnants called neutron stars, and other cosmic phenomena. In 2018, NASA renamed Swift in honor of the late Neil Gehrels, who helped develop the mission and served as its principal investigator for 13 years.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) ||

Animation of the Webb Telescope eclipsing the sun as seen from the camera point of view. || Animation of the Webb Space Telescope as it eclipses the sun as seen from the camera's viewpoint || Animation of the Webb Telescope eclipsing the sun as seen from the camera point of view. 21x9 ratio ||

XRISM turntable animations, available both as 4K/30 and 60 fps movies and as frames. The exposed tank behind the truss structure on the side opposite the solar panels houses the Resolve instrument.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab || This page contains animations and illustrations of the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch into orbit around Earth in 2023.The mission, abbreviated XRISM (pronounced “crism”), is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, along with ESA (the European Space Agency) participation, to investigate the X-ray universe using high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy. XRISM features two instruments: Resolve, an X-ray calorimeter spectrometer, and Xtend, an X-ray imager. Cooled to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, Resolve’s detector can measure the slight amount of heat generated when each pixel absorbs a single X-ray photon. Xtend will image a field of view about 60% larger than the apparent size of a full moon, giving it XRISM the widest view of any X-ray imaging satellite flown to date. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, developed the X-ray Mirror Assemblies used for both instruments, as well as the Resolve detector and many of its subsystems. ||

LCRD deploys and points toward Earth ||

The most recent evaluations of NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) project confirmed all systems go for TDRS-K, a third generation upgrade of the orbiting communications network. TDRS-K is scheduled for launch aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida during the 2012 holiday season. || The launch of TDRS-K will begin the replenishment of the fleet through the development and deployment of the next generation spacecraft. These satellites will ensure NASA's Space Network continues to provide around-the-clock, high throughput communications services to NASA's missions and serving the scientific community and human spaceflight program for years to come. For complete transcript, click here. ||

NASA is preparing to launch the first in a series of three third generation advanced Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, known as TDRS-K. This latest addition to the fleet of seven will augment a space communications network that provides the critical path for high data-rate communication to the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope, past shuttle missions and a host of other spacecraft. It has been 10 years since NASA last launched a TDRS. This launch is the beginning of a welcome replenishment to the space network, which has served numerous national and international space missions since 1983. ||