Put your name in Landsat

NASA turned Earth Day into a personalized satellite postcard, inviting people to type in their names and see them spelled out with real Landsat images of Earth. (science.nasa.gov) The interactive lets users enter letters A through Z, then view and export a graphic built from Earth features captured by Landsat. NASA lists it as a small-group or individual activity for ages 10 and up that takes less than five minutes. (science.nasa.gov) NASA tied the project to Earth Day 2025 on April 22, 2025, when it released that year’s poster and linked the name generator as part of its public outreach. The agency said the tool uses imagery from the Landsat mission, which NASA operates with the U.S. Geological Survey. (science.nasa.gov) Landsat is the long-running satellite program that photographs Earth’s land surface from space. The U.S. Geological Survey says the mission has collected continuous land imagery since 1972, giving scientists and land managers a record of changes in forests, farms, cities, water, and wildfire scars. (usgs.gov) NASA said the name tool was built to create a direct link between the public and Earth-observing data. In a May 2025 write-up, the agency said the project was meant to get users “to explore Earth’s diverse surface from space” through a personal prompt. (science.nasa.gov) The campaign reached a large audience soon after launch. NASA said that by May 1, 2025, the interactive had logged more than 1 million page views. (science.nasa.gov) The images behind the letters came from several Earth-imaging archives, including NASA Earth Observatory, NASA Worldview, U.S. Geological Survey EarthExplorer, and European Space Agency Sentinel Hub, according to NASA. That means the alphabet is assembled from real landscapes rather than computer-drawn shapes. (science.nasa.gov) NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio said the underlying “Your Name in Landsat” media package was published on May 27, 2025, and linked the project to Landsat 7, Landsat 8, and Landsat 9. The studio described the mission as more than 50 years old and focused on tracking changes on Earth’s surface. (svs.gsfc.nasa.gov) NASA’s Space Place, its education site for children, still carries the activity in English as of April 2026. A U.S. Geological Survey image page from September 9, 2024 also promoted the same tool, showing the project has remained part of Landsat outreach beyond a single Earth Day post. (spaceplace.nasa.gov; usgs.gov) The pitch is simple: type a name, get a picture, and leave with a closer look at how satellites see the planet’s surface. NASA’s Earth Day material packaged that lesson as something people could download, share, and keep. (science.nasa.gov)