# NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

> NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is a paid API for AI agents from nasa-x402.vercel.app, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status down (last checked 2026-10-13).

Returns NASA's featured astronomy image or video for a given date, including title, explanation, and media URL

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://nasa-x402.vercel.app/nasa/apod?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: down
- Last checked: 2026-10-13
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/nasa-x402-vercel-app-5ad544a4
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_P0ikO3VBTQ3kwD6IgzQhz

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-x402-vercel-app-5ad544a4
```

Example prompt: What's NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for July 4, 2023 — show me the image, title, and full explanation.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need NASA's official daily featured astronomy image with its curated scientific explanation for a specific date or a random selection. Prefer this over general NASA image search when you want the editorially curated daily highlight rather than searching the broader archive.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid date format returns an error — must be YYYY-MM-DD
- Date before June 16, 1995 (APOD launch date) may return no result
- count exceeding 10 may be rejected or capped
- Network or upstream NASA API unavailability returns a 5xx error
- Payment failure returns 402 Payment Required

## How this service works

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day. Returns the featured space image with title and explanation. Optional: specific date or random selection.

## Output

Returns a JSON object containing the image or video URL, title, detailed explanation text, date, and media type (image or video) for the requested APOD entry. When count is specified, returns an array of random APOD entries.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "date": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Date in YYYY-MM-DD format (default: today)"
      },
      "count": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Return N random APODs (max 10)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object",
     "properties": {
      "url": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "date": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "title": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "media_type": {
       "type": "string"
      },
      "explanation": {
       "type": "string"
      }
     }
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/nasa-x402-vercel-app-5ad544a4/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from nasa-x402.vercel.app](https://www.zero.xyz/host/nasa-x402.vercel.app/llms.txt)