Landsat’s Global Perspective Over 40 Years, NASA “On July 23rd, 1972, the first Landsat spacecraft launched into orbit. At the time, it was called “Earth Resources Technology Satellite,” or ERTS, and was the first satellite to use a scanning spectrophotometer. … Celebrating this anniversary, this video is a “greatest hits” montage of Landsat data. Throughout the decades, Landsat satellites have given us a detailed view of the changes to Earth’s […]

NRC Warns Landsat-Type Data Not Sustainable Under Current Practices, Space Policy Online “The National Research Council (NRC) today issued its much-anticipated report on how to ensure continuity of Landsat-type land imaging data. The bottom line is that a sustained program is not viable under current mission development and management practices. Instead, the NRC calls for a “systematic and deliberate program” instead of the “historical pattern of chaotic programmatic support and […]

NASA Launches New Earth Observation Satellite to Continue 40-Year Legacy, SpaceRef “NASA’s Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) roared into space at 1:02 p.m. EST (10:02 a.m. PST) Monday aboard an Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The LDCM spacecraft separated from the rocket 79 minutes after launch and the first signal was received 3 minutes later at a ground station in Svalbard, Norway. The solar arrays […]

Landsat 5 Sets Guinness World Record for Longest Operating Earth Observation Satellite, NASA Goddard “Landsat 5 successfully set the new Guinness World Records title for ‘Longest-operating Earth observation satellite’ as stated in an e-mail from Guinness World Records sent to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Outliving its three-year design life, Landsat 5 delivered high-quality, global data of Earth’s land surface for 28 years and 10 months.”

NASA Budget Would Be More of the Same … on the Surface, National Journal “Unfortunately, the Committee has lost confidence in NOAA’s ability to control procurement costs or articulate reliable funding profiles. Therefore, we have taken the unprecedented step of transferring responsibility for building our Nation’s operational weather satellites from NOAA to NASA,” [Mikulski] said.” U.S. could lose aging eyes in the sky, CNN “Of 23 such satellites now aloft […]

NASA Statement on Suspicious Terra Spacecraft Events According to NASA PAO: “NASA experienced two suspicious events with the Terra spacecraft in the summer and fall of 2008. There was no manipulation of data, no commands successfully sent to the satellite, and no data captured. NASA notified the Department of Defense, which is responsible for investigating any attempted interference with satellite operations. While we cannot discuss additional details regarding the attempted […]