Terra is the first satellite launched as part of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS). EOS is a coordinated series of polar-orbiting and low inclination satellites for long-term observation of the Earth – land surface, biosphere, atmosphere and oceans. Terra provides global data on the atmosphere, land, oceans, and interactions with solar radiation. Many other missions followed Terra like the Afternoon Constellation (known as the A-Train) which is a group of satellites that cross the equator within a few seconds or minutes after each other right around 1:30pm EST. These missions include: Aqua (launched in May 2002), Aura (launched in July 2004), Parasol (launched in December 2004), CloudSat and Calipso (both launched in April 2006), the Global Change Observation Mission-Water (GCOM-W, launched on May 18, 2012), and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (launched July 2014). The Near Earth Network and Space Network provide communication and tracking services for most these Earth orbiting satellites.