The recent mission The moon landing of the Artemis II astronauts was memorable, inspiring, and scientifically important for many reasons. It also brought us a trove of new images and videos ready to be added to NASA’s vast library of content. Consider this photograph of Earth more than 400,000 kilometers away, for example, taken from
The recent mission The moon landing of the Artemis II astronauts was memorable, inspiring, and scientifically important for many reasons. It also brought us a trove of new images and videos ready to be added to NASA’s vast library of content.
Consider this photograph of Earth more than 400,000 kilometers away, for example, taken from the far side of the Moon. Or these widely shared images of our planet from inside the Orion capsule, which were taken with iPhone 17 Pro Max phones. Truly out of this world photographs, but taken with a device that many of us have in our pockets.
These images have been all over social media, but what you may not know is that NASA makes its huge library of images and videos available for anyone to explore, marvel at, and share. Because NASA is funded by the US government, most of its published media is in the public domain.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s not immediately obvious where this library is and how to access it.
If you’re ready to explore decades of incredible NASA photography and video clips, from giant star constellations to spacesuit designs, here’s how to get started. A word of warning, though: it’s easy to get lost for hours inside these collections.
NASA’s Image and Video Library
Let’s start with the most important resource: NASA’s image and video library. This is where you’ll find almost all of the images, videos, and audio clips NASA wants to share, from astronaut photos and space conferences to shots of planets and satellite images. By default, you can see the most recent uploads first, but you can also click Trends and popular to view frequently viewed content over the years.
Click on an image or video here to get a wealth of information about it, including what it shows and when it was captured. Some of the subtitles here are mini-essays, and much of the content on this portal includes EXIF data, which will be of interest to photographers (or anyone who wants to know what photos were taken with an iPhone 17 Pro Max).
As wonderful as this resource is, it’s also difficult to sift through unless you know specifically what you’re looking for. Basically, you rely on the search box at the top and common keywords can return dozens and dozens of pages of results. Try to be as specific as possible with your search terms. Also, use the keywords in each photo and video listing to find related content.
NASA images
In addition to the NASA Image and Video Library page, there is also NASA Images, which includes a link to the Image and Video Library. (Those of you behind, try to keep up). NASA Images isn’t as comprehensive as the Image and Video Library, but it’s better organized and it’s easier to find recent content here.
Check back often for more exciting news!
