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Landsat

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Landsat is the Land Remote Sensing Satellite Program managed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The Landsat Satellite series began in 1972 to gather information about land surface features of the planet. These satellites collect remotely sensed imagery of the Earth’s surface at moderate resolution. Landsat 1 was launched in 1972 as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite. It transmitted data until 1977. Landsat 2 was launched in 1975 and transmitted data until 1977. Landsat 3 was launched in 1978 and returned MultiSpectral Scanner (MSS) data until 1982, when NASA launched Landsat 4.

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Landsat is the Land Remote Sensing Satellite Program managed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The Landsat Satellite series began in 1972 to gather information about land surface features of the planet. These satellites collect remotely sensed imagery of the Earth’s surface at moderate resolution. Landsat 1 was launched in 1972 as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite. It transmitted data until 1977. Landsat 2 was launched in 1975 and transmitted data until 1977. Landsat 3 was launched in 1978 and returned MultiSpectral Scanner (MSS) data until 1982, when NASA launched Landsat 4. Landsat 5, launched in 1984, and Landsat 7, launched in 1999, are still in orbit and have continued to supply images and data for the many users of the information, but they are operating beyond their designed life and may fail at any time. In November 2011, imaging from Landsat 5 was suspended due to technical difficulties. Landsat has been used in a wide variety of applications, including climate research, natural resources management, commercial and municipal land development, public safety, homeland security and natural disaster management. Despite its wide use, efforts in the past to commercialize Landsat operations have not been successful. Most of the users of the data are other government agencies. For that reason, funding a replacement for the failing Landsat orbiters has been a federal responsibility. Landsat stakeholders include (1) investigators in geophysical and atmospheric sciences; (2) decision makers and program managers at NASA, USGS, and other federal agencies, including land management agencies; (3) international government and military decision makers; (4) for-profit enhanced Landsat products distributors; and (5) consumers of commercial land surface imagery and environmental data. Despite its long history, the Landsat satellite series has never been considered a truly operational capability. All Landsat satellites have been justified, built, and flown as experimental, scientific research systems with no assurance of the long-term continuity of the data. For close to 30 years, the policy of the federal government has been to encourage commercialization of space capabilities and systems including Landsat. Despite previous attempts to commercialize moderate-resolution data-collection in the United States, a viable commercial option has not yet emerged even though the products are used widely by governments, government support contractors, universities, private for-profit, and nonprofit organizations. Some of the challenges that have inhibited commercialization include: lack of expected market growth, higher costs for Landsat products (to help cover investment costs and profit expected by the private sector), failure to realize operating costs savings, inhibited applications of the data, and reduced data use by the end-users resulting from these cost factors.