NASA-USGS Landsat 9 Earth-monitoring satellite launched
Landsat 9 data will add to the mission's archive that has grown to contain more than 8 million images. Decision-makers from across the globe use the freely available images and the embedded data to better understand environmental change, coral reef habitat health, and glacier dynamics, forecast global crop production, respond to natural disasters, and more.
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The Landsat 9 Earth-monitoring satellite, a joint mission of NASA/ and the U.S. Geological Survey mission (USGS), successfully launched at 2:12 p.m. EDT Monday from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The satellite lifted off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and joins its sister satellite, Landsat 8, in orbit. Together, they will collect images spanning the entire planet every eight days, continuing the Landsat program's critical role in monitoring the health of Earth and helping people manage essential resources, including crops, irrigation water, and forests.
Success! #Landsat 9 launched today to continue a nearly 50-year legacy of monitoring the health of our planet. A partnership with @USGS, the satellite will help people manage Earth's natural resources with science-based decisions: https://t.co/VlSDo6Kz8X pic.twitter.com/gTB6foW0ZT
— NASA (@NASA) September 27, 2021
Landsat 9 data will add to the mission's archive that has grown to contain more than 8 million images. Decision-makers from across the globe use the freely available images and the embedded data to better understand environmental change, coral reef habitat health, and glacier dynamics, forecast global crop production, respond to natural disasters, and more.
The NASA-USGS Landsat 9 satellite is designed to last at least five years on orbit but it has enough fuel to operate for at least 15 years, including de-orbit, though it could last for 20 or more years, the U.S. space agency said in a blog post.
With a 50-year data bank to build on, Landsat 9 will take this historic and invaluable global program to the next level. We look forward to working with our partners at the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of the Interior again on Landsat Next, because we never stop advancing our work to understand our planet.
According to NASA, the next Landsat mission is already in the works.
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