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NASA makes their entire media library publicly accessible and copyright free

by 42 Comments

No matter if you enjoy taking or just watching images of space, NASA has a treat for you. They have made their entire collection of images, sounds, and video available and publicly searchable online. It’s 140,000 photos and other resources available for you to see, or even download and use it any way you like.

You can type in the term you want to search for and browse through the database of stunning images of outer space. Additionally, there are also images of astronauts, rocket launches, events at NASA and other interesting stuff. What’s also interesting is that almost every image comes with the EXIF data, which could be useful for astrophotography enthusiasts.

When you browse through the gallery, you can choose to see images, videos or audio. Another cool feature I noticed is that you can narrow down the results by the year. Of course, I used some of my time today to browse through the gallery, and here are some of the space photos you can find:

What I love about NASA is that they make interesting content for average Internet users. They make us feel closer and more familiar with their work and with the secrets of the outer space. For instance, they recently launched a GIPHY account full of awesome animated gifs. It’s also great that photography is an important part of their missions, and so it was even before “pics or it didn’t happen” became the rule. The vast media library they have now published is available to everyone, free of charge and free of copyright. Therefore, you can take a peek at the fascinating mysteries of space, check out what it’s like inside NASA’s premises, or download the images to make something awesome from them. Either way, you’ll enjoy it.

[NASA Image and Video Gallery via SLR Lounge; Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]

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  • Brian Menin

    It should be free. We paid for it.

    • Tanya Harrison

      It was already free—all NASA stuff like this has always been in the public domain. The only thing “new” here is the single website and search function to go through them all, making it easier to track things down than it was before.

  • I started a little photography project on instagram, after reading this article – https://www.instagram.com/nasarchive/

    • DERP

      that’s pretty whack for two years ago

  • Wonderful Stuff!

  • Well done, dear Sirs! I do appreciate! The world will become more rich on this way.

  • Wes YoungSanta Barnes

    Lots of great CGI work on here! I’ve seen street kids do this shit with spray paint. NASA is a bigger lie than 9/11.

    • sumdumgoi ✓ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ ᵖʳᵉᵐᶦᵘᵐ

      Nice attempt at trolling, but honestly I don’t think anyone is going to believe somebody can be as stupid as what your post makes you sound like.

      • Have you seen Youtube recently? The “space is fake!” / “Earth is flat!” / “NASA is Satan!” brigade are out in force.

        • Dark Zone

          I know, and they’re hilarious! The fact that they’re dead serious makes it even more hysterical.

    • surfyogi

      Well documented, all the UFOs get airbrushed out.
      Good CGI, exactly…

  • Barton Paul Levenson

    Makes it available WHERE? You didn’t include a link to the pictures!

    • Nancy Emmons

      Click on the blue words ‘entire collection’ in the paragraph below the 4 photos on which the NASA logo appears.

      • Barton Paul Levenson

        Thanks!

  • rmcnees

    The material has always been free, but this new portal is a great way to access it. Please remember, though, that you should still credit the sources when you use their media. For instance, that first image (“Milky Way Center Aglow…”) should have a “Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech” or “Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech” somewhere. Those scientists put in a lot of hard work to produce these images, and crediting them is an important way of acknowledging that.

    • Charlie

      Right! Thank you!

      • Finley

        I am lost in the conversation

    • Victoria J. Polsoni

      Wouldn’t want people thinking the average Facebook user can go to space and snap some casual pics of alien matter in the solar system!

      • Nyle Smith

        Crediting someone on their contributions is for the purpose of referencing a specific individual’s work. You can then follow their studies, build on their work, read their publications, attend the same school, or even just look at some more cool photos.

        No one was scared that other people would think it was a facebooker with a smartphone. We… we got that. ;D

  • Frugal Freak

    free for PERSONAL USE only. They shouldn’t have even bothered.
    https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html

    • Kirk

      I don’t think you actually read the NASA guidelines. These space pictures are truly public domain. Photographs of NASA signs and symbols, employees, including astronauts, are restricted from commercial use by various other laws, including state privacy laws, not copyright. Photographs by commercial photographers under contract to NASA are protected by the copyrights of those commercial photographers (which is why Pete Souza owns the copyright of his White House photographs).

  • Larua

    if you enjoy cgi and childlike artwork and fake shit, this is the place to play lol

    • DERP

      ^^^found the retard everyone!

    • John Kosto

      And this is what unintelligent design looks like

      • Finley

        Lol

  • Marcus Valls

    Spaceshutterstock!

  • Daniel Baker

    http://www.usa.gov/copyright.shtml

    “What is a U.S. government work?”

    A United States government work is prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person’s official duties.

    It is not subject to copyright in the United States and there are no copyright restrictions on reproduction, derivative works, distribution, performance, or display of the work. Anyone may, without restriction under U.S. copyright laws.

  • Judith Flacke

    So do we still need to credit? Even in part of a composite?

    • No.

    • T’Rina Lockary

      Well good manners and it does allow others to find similar images but it isn’t mandatory

  • Tanya Harrison

    As others have noted, the title of this article is extremely misleading—NASA images have *always* been public domain and freely available. The only thing new at the time of writing was the search interface to be able to better find things.

  • Sarah Jean Beeman-hall

    Oh my God I love space shit .

  • Gi Ku

    if its free why we don’t get raw images without cleaned aliens spaceships ?

  • Corey Kretsinger

    These are not without restrictions. Y’all had better read the usage guidelines, especially if you wish to use the media for commercial purposes.

    https://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/Advertising_Guidelines.html

    • james

      From what I gathered they are OK to use commercially unless they are marked copyrighted and of course without any logos including the NASA logo. Is that what other folks understood?

  • Bawenang Rukmoko Pardian Putra

    Can I make a commercial product with these images?

  • Free Wallpapers

  • Laurie Neufeld

    I will happily snag the Eagle Nebula (Pillars of Creation) because that has always been one of my favorite images, especially since it was used as a backdrop in one episode of Babylon 5.

  • james

    An awesome resource! Thanks!

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