[Objective] The temporal and spatial variation of vegetation coverage in the Kubuqi Desert during 1989—2019 was explored in order to provide the necessary theoretical basis and support for ecological restoration of the local area. [Methods] Landsat images acquired every five years from 1989 to 2019 was used, combined with the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) model, ENVI 5.3, and ArcGIS 10.2 to analyze the fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) variation of the Kubuqi Desert during 1989—2019. [Results] ① In terms of temporal variation, the average fractional vegetation coverage of the Kubuqi Desert increased from 0.104 to 0.243 during 1989—2019. In terms of spatial distribution, fractional vegetation coverage increased from west to east and north in the Kubuqi Desert. ② The fractional vegetation coverage of the Kubuqi Desert declined during 1999—2004 and 2009—2014. The average fractional vegetation coverage for those two periods decreased by 0.053 and 0.054, respectively, and the degraded areas were 3 870.22 km² and 6 093.59 km², respectively. [Conclusion] On the whole, the vegetation coverage of the Kubuqi Desert increased during 1989—2019. In the future, local ecological restoration efforts should focus on the low vegetation coverage areas.