NASA releases its Software catalog offering its extensive portfolio of software products for a wide variety of technical applications. These software are available to download free of cost, without any royalty or copyright charges from its website.
Software that have been included in the catalog are from all the agency’s centers on data processing/storage, business systems, operations, propulsion and aeronautics including tools that NASA uses to explore space. Each catalog entry is accompanied with a plain language description of what it does.
It’s NASA’s third edition of the publication. NASA published its first edition in April 2014 and since then, the space agency has shared thousands of its software programs with students, industry, individuals and other government agencies.
“The software catalog is our way of supporting the innovation economy by granting access to tools used by today’s top aerospace professionals to entrepreneurs, small businesses, academia and industry,” said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in Washington.
He further added, “Access to these software codes has the potential to generate tangible benefits that create American jobs, earn revenue and save lives.”
Some software also include codes to develop more advanced drones or quieter aircraft. However, NASA has restricted access to some of the codes. These software catalogs published over years are part of NASA’s Technology Transfer program. According to the program, NASA makes the technology it uses for discoveries and for various missions, available to the public.
“We’re pleased to transfer these tools to other sectors and excited at the prospect of seeing them implemented in new and creative ways,” said NASA’s Technology Transfer program executive, Dan Lockney.