NASA has 10 major field stations:
| Name | OSM Link | Object type | Primary tag | Landuse | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ames Research Center | (OSM) | area | industrial |
||
| Armstrong Flight Research Center | (OSM) | area | aeroway=aerodrome |
NASA | |
| Glenn Research Center | (OSM) | node | |||
| Goddard Space Flight Center | (OSM) | relation | amenity=research_institute |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration | |
| Jet Propulsion Laboratory | (OSM) | area | amenity=research_institute |
industrial |
California Institute of Technology |
| Johnson Space Center | (OSM) | area | commercial |
NASA | |
| Kennedy Space Center | (OSM) | relation | aeroway=spaceport |
NASA | |
| Langley Research Center | (OSM) | relation | military | ||
| Marshall Space Flight Center | (OSM) | way | amenity=research_institute |
military | NASA |
| Stennis Space Center | (OSM) | area | amenity=research_institute |
industrial |
National Aeronautics and Space Administration |
As you can see, the tagging is a bit of mix. There’s some inconsistencies (e.g., around the operator tags) and some fundamental errors (e.g. landuse=military). I think it’d be nice if there were a consistent tagging scheme for NASA field stations.
Most NASA field stations are research / development sites, though Kennedy is a launch site/mission control. Armstrong is a research centre but also an aerodrome.
My suggestion for a tagging scheme is as below:
name full name of the station as listed in the name column above (do not include “NASA”)
alt_name commonly referred to name (e.g. NASA Goddard) (can check Wikipedia for this)
short_name if appropriate, the acronym version (e.g. NASA GSFC) (again can check Wikipedia)
amenity research_institute OR aeroway spaceport or aerodrome (depending upon field station type)
access private
operator National Aeronautics and Space Administration
operator:short NASA
operator:wikidata Q23548
operator:type government
government aerospace
website, wikipedia, and wikidata as appropriate
The exception to the operator tagging is JPL. JPL’s operator is California Institute of Technology rather than NASA (though is owned and “sponsored” by NASA).
For landuse, I’m not sure what’s best. Certainly landuse=military is wrong and should not be used. I don’t think commercial is correct either. Some of the field stations are perhaps industrial whereas some are probably not (e.g. GSFC being more research focussed).
Happy to hear thoughts/suggestions on this.