Learn GIS online — a free 30-week curriculum.

Most online GIS courses are either short (a single weekend boot camp) or expensive (university-degree-priced). LaunchDetect Academy is the third option: 30 weeks of free, self-paced curriculum from absolute foundations through expert-level production deployments, with five hands-on capstones using real geospatial data.

Who this is for

You should take this course if you fit any of these descriptions:

You are an engineer or developer who needs GIS skills for a new project but does not have the time or budget for a university program.
You are a geographer or earth scientist who is comfortable with theory but wants to build practical software with modern tools.
You are a self-directed learner who prefers depth over breadth and wants to know why things work, not just how.
You want a verifiable credential to put on a resume but balk at paying $5,000 for an online program.

What you will learn

The curriculum is organized into 5 tracks. By the end of each, you have a real artifact you can show:

Ground Station Operator (4 weeks) — coordinate systems, projections, QGIS, plotting global launch sites. Capstone: a published-quality global launch-site atlas.
Orbital Analyst (6 weeks) — PostGIS, orbital mechanics, SGP4, ground tracks. Capstone: a Python tool that produces ground tracks and coverage polygons for any satellite.
Remote Sensing Specialist (5 weeks) — EM spectrum, Landsat/Sentinel-2, thermal IR plume detection. Capstone: a working plume detector for real NOAA GOES NetCDFs.
Mission GIS Engineer (5 weeks) — web mapping, CesiumJS, real-time WebSockets. Capstone: a real-time satellite tracker on a 3D globe.
Space GIS Architect (10 weeks) — ML for satellite imagery, SAR, geodesy, production AWS pipelines. Capstone: a complete end-to-end detection pipeline + GitHub repo + demo video.

How the labs work

Every week ships a downloadable Jupyter notebook with a one-click "Open in Colab" button. The data is real (NOAA GOES NetCDFs, CelesTrak TLEs, Natural Earth boundaries). The code runs end-to-end. Solutions are provided in collapsible accordions on each week page.

What you do not need

You do not need:

A paid software license — every tool used in the course (QGIS, PostGIS, Python, Jupyter, Cesium) is free and open-source.
Specialized hardware — every lab runs on a standard laptop or in Colab.
A GIS background — Track 1 starts from "what is a coordinate system?"
Math past undergraduate level — the orbital mechanics in Track 2 is approachable with basic calculus.

Related weeks in the course

Frequently asked questions

Is it really free?

Yes. The full 30-week curriculum is free and publicly indexable. The only paid component is the verifiable certificate, which is included with the LaunchDetect Gold subscription ($9.99/month). The curriculum itself does not require an account.

How long does the course take?

Self-paced. The structure is 30 weeks at 3-6 hours per week, plus 8-20 hours per capstone (5 capstones). A motivated full-time learner can complete it in 2-3 months; a part-time learner over a year.

What if I get stuck on a lab?

Each lab's Jupyter notebook includes a solution section. Beyond that, the labs repository at github.com/launchdetect/academy-labs accepts issues for clarifications and bug reports. There is no instructor-led support.

Is the certificate recognized by employers?

The certificate has a public verifiable URL at launchdetect.com/academy/verify/{certId}/ that any recruiter or employer can independently check. The course is built by LaunchDetect (a production space-GIS company) and aligns with industry-standard tools, so the skills are directly applicable in industry.

Can I use this course material to teach my own class?

Yes, with attribution. The curriculum content is free for educational use. The labs repository accepts pull requests for additions and corrections.

Browse the full course Glossary