Space and astronomy · by NASA

NASA Image and Video Library

NASA's searchable archive of mission photos, videos and audio, with a free JSON API that returns metadata and direct links to each file in several sizes.

You can pull up the original full-size frames from Apollo, the Space Shuttle and today's missions, each with NASA's own captions, dates and keywords.

API, no keyDownloadCommercial: conditions

Open images.nasa.gov ↗ agent.md

For your project

Official API: Official API
“The images.nasa.gov API is organized around REST. Our API has predictable, resource-oriented URLs, and uses HTTP response codes to indicate API errors.” images.nasa.gov/docs/images.nasa.gov_api_docs.pdf
Key: Not needed
“curl "https://images-api.nasa.gov/search ?q=apollo%2011 &description=moon%20landing &media_type=image" | python -m json.tool” images.nasa.gov/docs/images.nasa.gov_api_docs.pdf
Formats: JSON
Data download: Yes jpg, mp4, mp3, json
License: NASA Images and Media Usage Guidelines (generally not copyrighted in the US) NASA-made images, video and audio; third-party items marked as copyrighted are excluded; NASA logos and insignia are protected
Commercial use: Commercial use with conditions
“If the NASA material is to be used for commercial purposes, including advertisements, it must not explicitly or implicitly convey NASA’s endorsement of commercial goods or services.” nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/
Credit: Credit required
“NASA should be acknowledged as the source of the material.” nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/
Embedding: Can be embedded
“You may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages.” nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/
Using the website: Free

Read on NASA Image and Video Library's own pages on Oct 23, 2026 · license or terms · API docs. Check the license page before you ship.

For your agent

A request your code or agent can make with no key:

https://images-api.nasa.gov/search?q=apollo%2011&media_type=image&page_size=10

Call images-api.nasa.gov/search with no key; results are Collection+JSON, and /asset/{nasa_id} lists every file size (~orig, ~large, ~medium, ~thumb).
Credit NASA as the source and never imply NASA endorses your product.
Do not use NASA logos/insignia or images of identifiable NASA employees in ads or merchandise without clearance.
Skip items marked as third-party copyrighted unless you get the holder's permission.

Paste into your agent: Read https://agentgid.com/resources/nasa-image-and-video-library/agent.md before using NASA Image and Video Library.

What you can build

Space photo wallpapers from NASA's archiveAn app or bot that finds NASA mission photos on a theme (Apollo, Mars, the Moon) and makes phone or desktop wallpapers with the caption.

A 'this day in spaceflight' page that shows NASA photos taken on today's date in past years
A mission explorer that groups images, video and audio by NASA album or center
A wallpaper or screensaver app that pulls the ~orig image for a chosen search term

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