Residents of Curtis Bay, Maryland have been fighting for cleaner air for years. A new satellite will take will help Air pollution data to get a big upgrade. Will it lead to cleaner air in the most burdened neighborhoods? Ryan Kellman/NPR hide caption
Virginia Norwood sits at the Storm Detector Radar Set at the Army Signal Corps Laboratories in New Jersey in a photo displayed at the Institute for Radio Engineers Convention, Spring 1950. Virginia Norwood via NASA hide caption
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has officially declassified an image first tweeted by President Trump in 2019. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency hide caption
A U.S. satellite captures cloud cover over North America on Monday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it has upgraded its weather forecasting model to use more satellite weather data. GOES-East CONUS/NOAA/NASA hide caption
The Montsec Astronomical Park opened in 2009. The area, in Lleida, a province of Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia, has been used by amateur astronomers taking advantage of its dark skies. Lucía Benavides for NPR hide caption
An artist's rendering of the twin Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft as they fly through deep space. The MarCOs will be the first CubeSats — a kind of modular, mini-satellite — attempting to fly to another planet. They're designed to fly along behind NASA's InSight lander on its cruise to Mars. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption
In this illustration, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft – the world's latest sea-level satellite – orbits Earth with its deployable solar panels extended. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption
Kansas farmer Derek Klingenberg is using satellite images to capture cow art from space. YouTube hide caption
The IMAGE spacecraft undergoes preflight testing in March 2000. NASA hide caption
Malaysia Airlines says the new system, which is expected to be operational in 2018, will use 66 low-earth-orbit satellites. Vincent Thian/AP hide caption
An image of Western Hemisphere lightning storms, captured Feb. 14 over the course of one hour. Brighter colors indicate more lightning energy was recorded (the key is in kilowatt-hours of total optical emissions from lightning.) The most powerful storm system is located over the Gulf Coast of Texas. MATLAB/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hide caption
For years, the satellites that make up America's Global Position System have been carrying sensors that measure the weather in space. This image illustrates the orbital planes in which GPS satellites travel around Earth. Courtesy of Los Alamos National Laboratory hide caption
A composite image of Earth taken at 1:07 p.m. ET on Jan. 15 by the GOES-16 satellite. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hide caption
In this handout provided by the NASA, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket sits on the launching pad with the JCSAT-14 communications satellite in May 2016. NASA/NASA via Getty Images hide caption
An artist's depiction of the new GOES-R satellite. Lockheed Martin/Flickr hide caption
NASA says this "blue marble" image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. NASA hide caption
Crews work a controlled burn in Geneva, Fla., in December. The state's forest service has rolled out a system to track equipment during fires, and hopes it can eventually be used to pinpoint firefighters, too. Joshua C. Cruey/Courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel hide caption
An artist's rendering of the European Space Agency's GOCE satellite, which is now out of fuel and expected to fall to Earth sometime Sunday or early Monday. European Space Agency/AOES Medialab hide caption
A rendering of objects currently in Low Earth Orbit (not illustrated to scale). According to NASA, "approximately 95 percent of the objects in this illustration are orbital debris, i.e., not functional satellites." NASA hide caption
The spectacular crash. YouTube.com hide caption
125 Swimming Pools. Satellite collections from Google Earth. Courtesy of Jenny Odell hide caption
KFC astrovertisement seen from above in Google Maps. Courtesy of Google hide caption