@NASA joins Instagram with out of this world photos of latest launch and planet Earth

NASA joined Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo- and video-sharing social media network, on Friday as part of its on-going mission to keep the public engaged and informed about its work.

The launch was timed to coincide with the Friday night take-off of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer.

LADEE is a robotic research mission designed to orbit the moon and obtain information about its atmosphere.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) launched on Friday night from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia

The image of Earth as seen by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) satellite was also posted by NASA on Saturday.

As well as new images, NASA also promises to post classic photos.

'We're constantly looking to expand our social media portfolio to include tools that will best tell NASA's story of exploration and discovery,' NASA Press Secretary Lauren Worley said in a statement.

'Instagram has a passionate following of users who are hungry for new and exciting photos. We believe we have some of the most engaging images on and off the planet - and we can't wait to engage with Instagrammers.' 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has already attracted more than 60,000 followers to its page and in the first 48 hours posted eight photos. 

Instagram joins the growing list of social media platforms on which NASA now has a presence including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Flickr, Foursquare and Reddit.

The agency's primary Twitter account, @NASA, has almost five million followers -- more than any other federal agency. 

The lunar farside as never seen before, courtesy LRO's LROC Wide Angle Camera, was the second image posted on NASA's Instagram account.