Open Media Review

NASA Opens Up Space Image Library

Through a partnership with the fine folks at the Internet Archive, NASA is making its image collection available to the public online for the first time. The collection will be indexed and searchable and represent at first 21 of NASA’s collection. There is apparently a plan over the next five years to expand the collection drastically as well as to better integrate it into NASA’s own web presence.

The terms and conditions of use are pretty liberal. They are not explicitly using a formal license but the only constraints on use have more to do with trademark and scope of consent. You cannot use the NASA logo or any of its marks nor in a commercial use indicate in any way an endorsement from NASA. Also, not all subjects in the collection are necessarily guaranteed to have signed a release so that could present a risk for certain uses. Otherwise, the field is wide open.

The interface is JavaScript heavy but seems pretty response and not too cumbersome to use. You can create your own online workspaces as well as simply downloading any images in which you are interested.