{"dataset":{"slug":"satellites","title":"Satellites","description":"Individual artificial satellites — communications, navigation, Earth-observation, weather, and science.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":31,"sources":["nasa","esa","noaa"]},"entities":[{"id":"satellite:aqua","name":"Aqua","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"NASA's Earth Observing System afternoon satellite, focused on the water cycle — precipitation, evaporation, clouds, and ocean properties.","entryPath":"/satellites/aqua"},{"id":"satellite:calipso","name":"CALIPSO","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A NASA–CNES mission using a space lidar to profile aerosols and thin clouds in Earth's atmosphere, flying in the A-Train formation.","entryPath":"/satellites/calipso"},{"id":"satellite:cloudsat","name":"CloudSat","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A NASA mission carrying a cloud-profiling radar that measured the vertical structure of clouds to study their role in climate.","entryPath":"/satellites/cloudsat"},{"id":"satellite:explorer-1","name":"Explorer 1","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The first satellite launched by the United States, in 1958, whose radiation detector discovered the Van Allen radiation belts. Built by JPL and launched by the U.S. Army — NASA did not yet exist.","entryPath":"/satellites/explorer-1"},{"id":"satellite:goes-16","name":"GOES-16","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The first of NOAA's advanced GOES-R geostationary weather satellites, imaging the Western Hemisphere every few minutes for forecasting and storm tracking.","entryPath":"/satellites/goes-16"},{"id":"satellite:gosat","name":"GOSAT (Ibuki)","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"Japan's greenhouse-gases observing satellite — the first satellite dedicated to monitoring atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane from space — operated by JAXA with Japan's National Institute for Environmental Studies.","entryPath":"/satellites/gosat"},{"id":"satellite:grace","name":"GRACE","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A twin-satellite mission that mapped tiny variations in Earth's gravity field to track the movement of water, ice, and mass around the planet.","entryPath":"/satellites/grace"},{"id":"satellite:grace-fo","name":"GRACE-FO","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The follow-on mission to GRACE, continuing the record of Earth's changing gravity field and the redistribution of water and ice.","entryPath":"/satellites/grace-fo"},{"id":"satellite:himawari-8","name":"Himawari-8","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A Japanese geostationary weather satellite operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency, providing high-frequency full-disk imaging of East Asia and the western Pacific.","entryPath":"/satellites/himawari-8"},{"id":"satellite:hipparcos","name":"Hipparcos","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"ESA's pioneering astrometry satellite, which precisely measured the positions, distances, and motions of over 100,000 stars — the forerunner of Gaia. An apogee-motor failure left it in a highly elliptical orbit, yet it still delivered landmark astrometric catalogues.","entryPath":"/satellites/hipparcos"},{"id":"satellite:icesat-2","name":"ICESat-2","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A NASA laser-altimetry mission measuring the elevation of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, and vegetation to track a changing planet.","entryPath":"/satellites/icesat-2"},{"id":"satellite:early-bird","name":"Intelsat I (Early Bird)","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The first commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit, which began regular transatlantic telecommunications service in 1965.","entryPath":"/satellites/early-bird"},{"id":"satellite:international-space-station","name":"International Space Station","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The International Space Station is a crewed modular space station in low Earth orbit, operated as a partnership among NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA, and the CSA.","entryPath":""},{"id":"satellite:jason-3","name":"Jason-3","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A radar-altimetry mission continuing the decades-long record of global sea-surface height for oceanography and climate monitoring.","entryPath":"/satellites/jason-3"},{"id":"satellite:landsat-1","name":"Landsat 1","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The first satellite of the Landsat program, which began the longest continuous record of Earth's land surface from space.","entryPath":"/satellites/landsat-1"},{"id":"satellite:landsat-8","name":"Landsat 8","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A NASA/USGS Landsat satellite carrying the Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensor, continuing the multi-decade land-imaging record.","entryPath":"/satellites/landsat-8"},{"id":"satellite:landsat-9","name":"Landsat 9","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The latest Landsat satellite, launched in 2021 to work in tandem with Landsat 8 for an eight-day global revisit of the land surface.","entryPath":"/satellites/landsat-9"},{"id":"satellite:lightsail-2","name":"LightSail 2","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A crowdfunded CubeSat that demonstrated controlled solar sailing in Earth orbit, raising its orbit using only the pressure of sunlight.","entryPath":"/satellites/lightsail-2"},{"id":"satellite:meteosat-second-generation","name":"Meteosat Second Generation","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"EUMETSAT's geostationary weather satellites imaging Europe, Africa, and the Atlantic to support European weather forecasting.","entryPath":"/satellites/meteosat-second-generation"},{"id":"satellite:molniya","name":"Molniya","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A long-running series of Soviet communications satellites that gave their name to the Molniya orbit — a highly elliptical orbit whose slow apogee high over the northern latitudes provided the coverage that geostationary satellites could not reach at high latitudes.","entryPath":"/satellites/molniya"},{"id":"satellite:noaa-20","name":"NOAA-20","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The first satellite of NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System, providing global polar-orbiting weather and environmental observations.","entryPath":"/satellites/noaa-20"},{"id":"satellite:sentinel-1","name":"Sentinel-1","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A Copernicus radar-imaging mission providing all-weather, day-and-night synthetic-aperture radar imagery of land and ocean.","entryPath":"/satellites/sentinel-1"},{"id":"satellite:sentinel-2","name":"Sentinel-2","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A Copernicus optical-imaging mission delivering high-resolution multispectral imagery for land monitoring, agriculture, and disaster response.","entryPath":"/satellites/sentinel-2"},{"id":"satellite:sentinel-3","name":"Sentinel-3","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A Copernicus mission monitoring ocean and land surface temperature, colour, and topography for climate and marine services.","entryPath":"/satellites/sentinel-3"},{"id":"satellite:smap","name":"SMAP","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A NASA mission mapping the moisture in Earth's surface soil to improve weather and climate models and monitor drought and floods.","entryPath":"/satellites/smap"},{"id":"satellite:swot","name":"SWOT","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A NASA–CNES mission surveying the height of Earth's surface water — oceans, lakes, and rivers — with unprecedented resolution.","entryPath":"/satellites/swot"},{"id":"satellite:telstar-1","name":"Telstar 1","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The first active communications satellite, which relayed the first transatlantic television signals in 1962.","entryPath":"/satellites/telstar-1"},{"id":"satellite:terra","name":"Terra","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"NASA's flagship Earth Observing System morning satellite, carrying instruments including MODIS and ASTER to study land, ocean, and atmosphere.","entryPath":"/satellites/terra"},{"id":"satellite:tiros-1","name":"TIROS-1","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"The first successful weather satellite, which returned the first television images of Earth's cloud cover in 1960 and founded operational meteorology from space.","entryPath":"/satellites/tiros-1"},{"id":"satellite:vanguard-1","name":"Vanguard 1","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"An early U.S. technology and science satellite — the oldest human-made object still in orbit, and the first satellite to use solar cells.","entryPath":"/satellites/vanguard-1"},{"id":"satellite:worldview-3","name":"WorldView-3","type":"satellite","domain":"science","description":"A Maxar very-high-resolution commercial Earth-imaging satellite used for mapping, defence, and analytics.","entryPath":"/satellites/worldview-3"}]}