Organisations and agencies

ESO offers 3 apps, 2 of which are basically e-books in the form of an app. Definitely worth the look though, as they feature some truly outstanding photographs. The third one is the Portal to the Universe, which is basically a news app, however it was updated last time in 2011 and currently has several major bugs, making many features inaccessible.

ESA apps are focused mostly around individual missions, with handbooks definitely being a highlight, though some more unique apps are available too. Must-have ESA Bulletin allows you to download and browse free ESA bulletins with insights into the agency and updates on their missions. There’s also an AR (augmented reality) application featuring several models of ESA spacecrafts.

This is the agency with the largest portfolio of applications, featuring games, visualisations, galleries, and many more.

JPL has its own, wide range of applications. Two of them worth highlighting are Earth Now – showing a few unique views on earth you won’t find in other applications, such as Carbon Monoxide levels, and the Spacecraft 3D augmented reality app with a wide set of models to view.

JAXA currently has one app – it’s a game about rocketry. And while it looks fun – it’s available only in Japanese.

The German Aerospace Agency focused on iPhone apps. Two applications are available only in German: Quiz and a DLR_next app which features basic star map and the ISS tracker with notifications about a next pass. Their third app is a programme of the 11th Low-Cost Planetary Missions Conference from 2015.

The smallest agency on the list with its own app, sadly it’s available only in Arabic.