# NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) API

> NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) API is a paid API for AI agents from nasa.memoryapi.org, paid per call via x402, $0.001/call, status down (last checked 2026-09-15).

Returns NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day — a daily curated space image with title and explanation.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://nasa.memoryapi.org/x402/nasa/apod
- Price: $0.001/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: down
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/nasa-memoryapi-org-a9f50ebd
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_HeLQSWSq4ORDsIq5ZSk10

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability nasa-memoryapi-org-a9f50ebd
```

Example prompt: What's today's NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day? Show me the image title and the full explanation NASA published.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need NASA's official daily astronomy image with its curated title and scientific explanation. Prefer this over generic image search when you specifically want the authenticated NASA APOD content for a given date or today's entry.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid or future date requested — returns error
- Network timeout from NASA upstream API
- API key or payment authorization failure — 402 response
- NASA APOD service temporarily unavailable — upstream outage

## How this service works

NASA data APIs with x402 micropayment access. Near Earth Objects, Space Weather (DONKI), and Astronomy Picture of the Day.

## Output

Returns the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day including the image URL, title, textual explanation, date, and media type (image or video).

## Example request

```json
{
 "date": "2024-01-15",
 "thumbs": false
}
```

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "required": [
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "example": {
  "url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/...",
  "date": "2026-05-29",
  "title": "A Starry Night Sky",
  "source": "NASA APOD",
  "success": true,
  "media_type": "image"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/nasa-memoryapi-org-a9f50ebd/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from nasa.memoryapi.org](https://www.zero.xyz/host/nasa.memoryapi.org/llms.txt)