What NASA Image and Video Library is
The NASA Image and Video Library (images.nasa.gov) is NASA's public archive of photos, audio and about nine thousand videos from its centres: rocket launches, missions and spacewalks, astronauts at work, Earth from the International Space Station, the Sun, aircraft research and mission animations. Every video comes as the same set of MP4 (H.264) files, from the original master down to 1080p, 720p, 360p and small previews.
Best for
Launches, astronauts, spacecraft and mission footage; Earth from orbit; science explainers. Clips are typically 1080p or 4K masters with sound, from short cutaways to full mission briefings.
Licence and what it means for your video
NASA media is generally not copyrighted in the US, and NASA allows commercial use with credit. It asks you not to use the NASA insignia or logotype, not to imply endorsement, and to get permission before using identifiable astronauts or staff in advertising. Some videos are copyrighted by partners such as launch providers or universities, named in the credit line: those are marked 'check the terms'. All NASA clips carry the editorial flag here because of the endorsement and insignia rules.
How Video Assets Server searches it
Through NASA's official, keyless API at images-api.nasa.gov. A search returns titles, descriptions, keywords, dates and a poster; opening a clip reads its file list and its technical metadata (frame size, length, frame rate, audio). Hover previews play NASA's small preview MP4 straight from images-assets.nasa.gov.
