April 30, 2024

NASA and USGS Launch Landsat 9 on Atlas V 401 Rocket

Since 1972, 8 Landsat satellites have actually been released into orbit (consisting of todays launch and excluding Landsat 6, which failed throughout launch). The satellite was carrying out as anticipated as it climbed up towards its last elevation of 705 kilometers (438 miles), the same as its sibling satellite, Landsat 8.” The Landsat mission is like no other,” stated Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth Science Division at NASA. “For almost 50 years, Landsat satellites observed our house world, offering an unparalleled record of how its surface area has actually changed over timescales from days to decades.” Working in tandem with the other Landsat satellites, as well as our European Space Agency partners who operate the Sentintel-2 satellites, we are getting a more thorough look at Earth than ever before,” stated Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA.

September 27, 2021.
Norways Svalbard satellite-monitoring ground station got signals from Landsat 9 about 80 minutes after launch. The satellite was carrying out as expected as it climbed up toward its last altitude of 705 kilometers (438 miles), the exact same as its sis satellite, Landsat 8. Working in tandem, the 2 satellites will collect images spanning the entire world every eight days.
” The Landsat mission is like no other,” said Karen St. Germain, director of the Earth Science Division at NASA. “For nearly 50 years, Landsat satellites observed our home world, supplying an unparalleled record of how its surface has altered over timescales from days to years.
September 27, 2021
The instruments aboard Landsat 9– the Operational Land Imager 2 (OLI-2) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 (TIRS-2)– will determine 11 wavelengths of light radiated or reflected off Earths surface area in the visible spectrum, as well as other wavelengths beyond what our eyes can detect. Once operational, Landsat 9 will add more than 700 scenes of Earth to the objective archive each day.
” Launches are constantly exciting, and today was no exception,” stated Jeff Masek, NASAs project researcher for Landsat 9. “But the best part for me as a scientist will be when the satellite starts delivering the information that individuals are waiting on, contributing to Landsats famous track record in the information user community.”
September 27, 2021
The USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center in South Dakota shops and processes information from the instruments, constantly including that information to five years of information from all Landsat satellites. All of the images and their embedded information are openly readily available and totally free, a policy that has led to more than 100 million downloads considering that its inception in 2008.
” Working in tandem with the other Landsat satellites, along with our European Space Agency partners who run the Sentintel-2 satellites, we are getting a more thorough take a look at Earth than ever before,” stated Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA. “With these satellites collaborating in orbit, well have observations of any provided place on our world every two days. This is extremely essential for tracking things like crop development and helping decision-makers keep track of the total health of Earth and its natural deposits.”

NASA managed the Landsat 9 objective. Teams from NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center built and checked the TIRS-2 instrument, while NASAs Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center handled the launch. Ball Aerospace tested the oli-2 and developed instrument. United Launch Alliance was the rocket company. Northrop Grumman developed the Landsat 9 spacecraft, incorporated it with instruments, and tested it. USGS EROS will operate the mission and handle the ground system, including keeping the Landsat archive.
NASA Earth Observatory animation by Joshua Stevens, using GOES 17 information from NOAA and the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). Photographs by NASA/Bill Ingalls. Story by Tylar Greene, NASA Headquarters, and Michael Carlowicz.

September 27, 2021
Powered by an Atlas V 401 rocket, Landsat 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on September 27, 2021 The satellite will extend a five-decade record of observations of Earth.
Considering that 1972, 8 Landsat satellites have actually been released into orbit (consisting of todays launch and excluding Landsat 6, which failed throughout launch). This collaboration in between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has actually supplied a extraordinary and almost constant visual record of Earths landscapes, icescapes, and seaside waters. Landsat satellites have collected more than 9 million scenes and provoked more than 18,000 research documents.
At 11:12 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (2:12 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time), a United Launch Alliance rocket launched from the California coast and rose toward the satellites near-polar, Sun-synchronous orbit. The animation listed below shows the plume from the rocket hovering over the marine cloud layer around 11:14 a.m. Pacific time; the images were captured by the GOES-17 weather condition satellite (band 2/red) at a rate of one frame per minute. GOES-17 is run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); NASA helps launch the goes and develop series of satellites.