Best Satellite

CORONA was a highly classified United States military reconnaissance satellite program developed by the CIA and the Air Force. Operating from 1959 to 1972 under the cover name Discoverer, it became America's first operational space photoreconnaissance system. The satellites used a panoramic camera s...

Syncom 3, launched by NASA in 1964, was the world's first geostationary satellite, positioned over the Pacific Ocean and notable for transmitting live television coverage of the Tokyo Olympics to the United States.

TanDEM-X (Terrain Digital Elevation Model) is a German radar satellite launched in 2010 by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). It operates in a tight helix formation with its twin satellite, TerraSAR-X, to create a single-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometer. By acquiring data sim...

WorldView-3 is a high-resolution commercial Earth observation satellite operated by Maxar and launched in 2014. It provides panchromatic imagery at 0.31-meter resolution, making it the highest-resolution commercial imaging satellite in orbit. The satellite is equipped with multispectral and shortwav...

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) was a joint space mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched in 1997. It was designed to monitor and study tropical and subtropical precipitation using a suite of instruments, including the first spaceborne precipita...

GOES-16, the first satellite of the GOES-R series, is a geostationary weather satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Launched in 2016, it continuously monitors the Western Hemisphere from a fixed position above the Americas. It features the Advanced Baselin...

Himawari-8 is a Japanese geostationary meteorological satellite operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency. Launched in 2014, it provides continuous, high-resolution weather monitoring for the Asia-Pacific region from its orbital position over the equator. Equipped with the Advanced Himawari Imager...

IKONOS-2 was a commercial Earth observation satellite launched in 1999 by Space Imaging (later GeoEye). It holds the distinction of being the first satellite to deliver publicly available, high-resolution sub-meter imagery to civilian and commercial customers. Operating in a sun-synchronous orbit, i...

The KH-9 Hexagon was a series of large photoreconnaissance satellites operated by the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) from 1971 to 1986. Often referred to as "Big Bird," it combined high-resolution mapping and surveillance photography into a single platform. The satellite utilized a film-ret...

IKONOS was a pioneering commercial Earth observation satellite launched in 1999 by Space Imaging (later GeoEye). As the first privately owned satellite to provide sub-meter resolution imagery to the public, it fundamentally transformed the commercial geospatial industry. Operating in a sun-synchrono...

Sentinel-2B is an Earth observation satellite operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the Copernicus Programme. Launched in 2017, it flies in a sun-synchronous orbit phased 180 degrees opposite its twin, Sentinel-2A. Equipped with a multispectral imager, the satellite captures high-re...

Seasat was a NASA ocean-observing satellite launched in 1978, the first spacecraft dedicated to remote sensing of Earth's oceans, pioneering synthetic aperture radar imaging before failing after 105 days.

CryoSat-2 is an Earth observation satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and launched in 2010. Its primary mission is to measure the thickness of sea ice and the elevation of polar ice sheets to understand how climate change affects Earth's cryosphere. It achieves this using the SAR/...

GOES-18, originally known as GOES-T, is a geostationary weather satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Launched in March 2022, it is the third satellite in the advanced GOES-R series. Positioned at 137.2 degrees West longitude, it serves as the operational...

Nimbus-7 was an American meteorological research satellite launched by NASA in 1978 into a sun-synchronous orbit. As the final satellite in the highly successful Nimbus program, it carried a suite of remote sensing instruments to study Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and climate. Notably, it hosted the...

China Space Station (Tiangong) is China's permanently crewed modular orbital station, with its core Tianhe module launched in 2021, representing China's first long-term human presence in low Earth orbit.

GOES-18 is a geostationary weather satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and launched in 2022. It replaced GOES-17 as the operational GOES-West satellite, taking up a vantage point at 137.2 degrees West longitude. As part of the advanced GOES-R series, it u...

Vela 5B was a United States Air Force satellite launched in 1969 as part of a military reconnaissance program designed to monitor Soviet compliance with the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The Vela satellites operated in high Earth orbits, utilizing specialized X-ray and gamma-ray detectors to...

The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is a NASA space physics observatory consisting of four identical satellites launched in 2015. The spacecraft fly in a tight tetrahedral formation to study the magnetosphere, specifically focusing on magnetic reconnection. This physical process occurs when...

ATS-6, launched by NASA in 1974, was the world's first experimental direct-broadcast educational television satellite, pioneering telemedicine and distance learning applications from geostationary orbit.

Himawari-9 is a geostationary meteorological satellite operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency. Launched in 2016, it is identical to Himawari-8 and was originally placed in orbit as an on-orbit backup. In December 2022, it officially succeeded Himawari-8 as the primary satellite for weather moni...

GOES-19 is the fourth and final satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-series, launched in 2024. Operated by NOAA and NASA, it is designed to be positioned in geostationary orbit as GOES-East. From this vantage point, it monitors weather and environmental conditions acr...

The Van Allen Probes, originally named the Radiation Belt Storm Probes, were a pair of NASA spacecraft launched in 2012 to study Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. Operating in elliptical orbits, the twin satellites investigated how relativistic electrons and ions are created and lost in the magneto...

Iridium NEXT is a second-generation low Earth orbit satellite constellation comprising 66 active spacecraft, launched between 2017 and 2019 aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. The constellation replaced the original Iridium network to provide continuous global voice and data communications. Designed for...

ALOS-2 (Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2) is a Japanese Earth observation satellite operated by JAXA and launched in 2014. Equipped with an L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor, it can observe the Earth's surface day and night, even in adverse weather conditions. The spacecraft provides h...

NOAA-20 is a polar-orbiting environmental monitoring satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Launched in 2017, it serves as the inaugural spacecraft of the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) program. The satellite carries a suite of instruments, including the Visi...

OrbView-2, also known as SeaStar, was a NASA-sponsored Earth observation satellite launched in 1997 to monitor the global biosphere. The spacecraft carried the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), designed to measure ocean color and biological productivity. By tracking chlorophyll concen...

Molniya-1 was a Soviet communications satellite series initiated in 1965 to provide television broadcasting and telephone services across vast territorial expanses. These spacecraft operated in highly elliptical Molniya orbits, a trajectory specifically designed to linger over high-latitude regions...

OSTM/Jason-2 was a joint international oceanography mission launched in 2008 by NASA, CNES, NOAA, and EUMETSAT. The spacecraft was equipped with a Poseidon-3 radar altimeter to precisely measure global sea surface height from a polar orbit. This data allowed scientists to track ocean circulation pat...