Nasa Gov NASA Image and Video Library API
66
AI ReadinessAI-Aware (B)66/100
Official vendor OpenAPI document · agent-readyMediaContent Deliverynone5 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Search NASA's public media archive and retrieve image, video, and audio assets by NASA ID. Returns asset manifests, metadata, captions, and album contents, with no API key required.
Use for: Find NASA images of the Apollo missions, Search for videos of a rocket launch, Get all file resolutions available for a NASA image, Retrieve the metadata for a specific NASA asset
Not supported: Does not handle image editing, media hosting, or live streaming. Use for searching and retrieving NASA's public media archive only.
The NASA Image and Video Library API provides open access to NASA's archive of images, video, and audio. It searches the collection by keyword, media type, and date, returns the asset manifest for a given NASA ID, and retrieves per-asset metadata, video captions, and the contents of named albums. Every item carries NASA's own descriptive metadata, so applications can surface mission imagery and footage with full attribution.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the NASA Image and Video Library API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the NASA Image and Video Library API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fnasa.gov%2Fnasa" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fnasa.gov%2Fnasa" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with NASA Image and Video Library API.
Search NASA's media archive by keyword, media type, year range, center, or photographer
Retrieve the asset manifest listing every file and resolution for a NASA ID
Pull descriptive metadata for an individual image, video, or audio asset
Fetch the caption track for a NASA video by its NASA ID
List the assets grouped under a named NASA album
Use Cases
Patterns agents use NASA Image and Video Library API for, with concrete tasks.
★ AI Media Research Agent
An AI agent connected through Jentic finds and cites NASA media by searching the library and reading the returned asset manifests, so a user asking for footage of a specific mission gets real file links without the developer wiring the NASA endpoints by hand. The agent searches by keyword and media type, then resolves each hit's NASA ID to its downloadable assets.
Search the NASA library for 'Mars rover' limited to images, then return the full-resolution file URLs for the top three results
Educational Content Feed
An education or newsroom product populates articles with public-domain NASA visuals by searching the archive for a topic and pulling each asset's metadata for captions and credits. Media-type and year filters keep results on topic, and album lookups let an editor surface a curated set such as a mission's official gallery.
Fetch the assets in a named NASA album and return each item's title, description, and photographer credit
Accessible Video Captions
A media or accessibility tool enriches embedded NASA videos with their caption tracks by resolving each video's NASA ID to its captions location and metadata. This lets a product display searchable, screen-reader-friendly transcripts alongside the footage without manually transcribing anything.
Given a NASA video's NASA ID, retrieve its caption track location and display the transcript next to the player
Key Endpoints
5 endpoints — the nasa image and video library api provides open access to nasa's archive of images, video, and audio.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/search
Search the media archive by keyword and filters
GET
/asset/{nasa_id}
Get the asset manifest for a NASA ID
GET
/metadata/{nasa_id}
Get the metadata location for a NASA ID
GET
/captions/{nasa_id}
Get the video caption location for a NASA ID
GET
/album/{album_name}
List the assets in a named album
GET
/search
Search the media archive by keyword and filters
GET
/asset/{nasa_id}
Get the asset manifest for a NASA ID
GET
/metadata/{nasa_id}
Get the metadata location for a NASA ID
GET
/captions/{nasa_id}
Get the video caption location for a NASA ID
GET
/album/{album_name}
List the assets in a named album
Jentic AI Readiness Score
This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.
N
NASA Image and Video Library API
- AI-Aware (B)66/100
93
Foundational Compliance61
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility44
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience94
Agent Usability100
Security63
AI DiscoverabilityPowered by JenticScoring Framework 1.0.0 | Scoring Engine 0.4.2
Show dimension breakdown
93
Foundational Compliance
Base layer of spec validity and structural soundness.
Grade: A+Signals: 4
98%
Lint Results
Aggregated quality score from linter diagnostics, weighted by severity.
100%
Resolution Completeness
Percentage of `$ref` references that resolve successfully.
100%
Specification Validity
Checks whether the API description parses successfully and conforms to its declared specification (e.g., OpenAPI).
75%
Structural Integrity
Structural correctness score based on schema issues using logarithmic dampening.
61
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility
Clarity, completeness, and ingestion readiness for developers and tooling.
Grade: B-Signals: 4
0%
Example Density
How richly the API is illustrated with examples.
100%
Example Validity
Percentage of examples that conform to their schemas.
45%
Response Coverage
Percentage of operations with complete response definitions (success, client error, server error).
100%
Tooling Readiness
Health of API ingestion, bundling, and resolution within Jentic pipelines.
44
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience
Semantic breadth, depth, and agent comprehension for AI systems.
Grade: DSignals: 4
26%
Description Coverage
Coverage of descriptions across API elements.
0%
Error Standardization
Coverage of RFC 9457 Problem Details for error responses.
100%
OperationId Quality
Coverage, uniqueness, and casing consistency of operationIds for AI inference.
50%
Summary Coverage
Coverage of summaries across operations/tags/info.
94
Agent Usability
Functional utility, complexity comfort, and AI orchestration readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
94%
Complexity Comfort
Agent comfort level based on API operational and structural complexity.
100
Security
Trust, risk posture, and security compliance.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
100%
Authentication Strength
Average quality of security schemes based on authentication method strength (weakest link for OAuth2).
63
AI Discoverability
Findability, semantic richness, and reasoning readiness.
Grade: B-Signals: 1
62%
Descriptive Richness
Clarity and depth of descriptions across API elements.
Score it yourself
Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
The NASA Image and Video Library needs no API key, but wiring it by hand still means learning its search parameters, NASA ID lookups, and asset-manifest shape. Through Jentic you install once, import it from the API Directory, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
Every operation here is a read, so a rule can keep your agent to just search and asset retrieval. You choose which operations it may call, and there is no write path to the archive.
Credential isolation
The NASA Image and Video Library is public, so there is no key to manage. When you add APIs that do require credentials, your own Jentic One instance keeps them encrypted and injects them at execution time, never placing them in the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'find NASA images of Mars' or 'get a video asset by NASA ID', and Jentic returns the matching NASA Image and Video Library operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using NASA Image and Video Library API through Jentic.
What authentication does the NASA Image and Video Library API use?
The NASA Image and Video Library API is public: its OpenAPI spec declares no authentication, so search and asset requests need no API key. Through Jentic it is still called from your own self-hosted instance, with every call logged.
Can I filter NASA media searches by type with the NASA Image and Video Library API?
Yes. The search operation accepts a media type of image, video, or audio, along with keyword, year range, NASA center, and photographer filters, and returns paged results. Each hit includes a NASA ID that you pass to the asset, metadata, or captions lookups.
What are the rate limits for the NASA Image and Video Library API?
The OpenAPI spec does not define rate limits for the NASA Image and Video Library API. NASA documents current usage guidance at https://images.nasa.gov, so check there before running large harvesting jobs.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the NASA Image and Video Library API?
Yes. Write a rule that allows only the search and asset-retrieval operations, so the agent finds and reads media and nothing more. The archive is read-only, so no rule can let the agent change anything, and every call it makes is logged.
How do I retrieve a NASA media asset through Jentic?
Search by intent in Jentic with a query like 'search NASA for images', add the NASA Image and Video Library API from the Jentic API Directory, and your agent runs the search then the asset lookup to return the media files for a NASA ID. To run it on your own infrastructure, install Jentic One from its GitHub repo.
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