NASA released on Friday the first engineering images from its $1.3 billion Terra mission -- an ambitious satellite designed to give scientists the tools to simultaneously take the pulse of the worlds lands, oceans, ice and atmosphere.

The first-light images show everything from the Mississippi River spilling sediment into the Gulf of Mexico to the delicate geology of the Rift Valley in Ethiopia to a global view of the amount of heat Earth loses to space.

"They show that the Terra instruments, with their delicate optics and electronics, made it safely to space," said Yoram Kaufman, Terras project scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in a prepared statement. "The images give us a glimpse on the unprecedented clarity and richness of the data that we anticipate from Terra in the months and years to come."

The satellites Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snapped the Mississippi delta in one of its first images (below) taken on February 24. The image shows the mighty river as it flows into the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans.

Terras Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) captured a view of an ice-choked James Bay in Ontario on February 24, including crescent-shaped Akimiski, one of several islands surrounded by the ice.

One of the instruments most colorful views of Ethiopias Rift Valley. Acting as a spaceborne geologist, the instrument pinpoints various rock types, including andesite and basalt.