The Little Satellite That Could

[kmusser]

As NASA is busy showing off their awesomeness I thought I'd write about one of their other successes. While I was at a mapping conference recently I was reminded that it is Landsat's 40th anniversary. It's sort of weird to think that as long as I've been alive, Landsat has been up there taking pictures. That's 40 years of continuous imagery covering the entire Earth, and it's all public domain. Every satellite image basemap you've ever seen is based on Landsat imagery.


Turns out we're very lucky to have that archive. The program launched 5 satellites from 1972-1984, each with a planned 3 year lifespan. Due to budget fuckery in the late 80's-early 90's Landsat 6 was delayed. Fortunately the earlier satellites were lasting longer than planned, 5-6 years, but by 1993 Landsat 5 was the only one operating, and it going on 9 years. Landsat 6 was finally launched . . . and failed to make orbit. Landsat 5 was in it's 15th year before Landsat 7 was launched and began taking over the bulk of image taking duties. Landsat 7 was planned for a 5 year mission and is still flying, now in its 13th year. Landsat 5 is also still taking pictures, 28 years old! Hopefully (fingers crossed) they'll get some relief with a new Landsat satellite scheduled for next February.

View the entire archive online (use Advanced Query to get at the earlier years) - for any fellow GIS users this is also available via ArcGIS Online.
What's Landsat 7 imaging right now?

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

I was just thinking the other day about how the last lot of Mars rovers, meant to last 90 days, lasted six years in one case and the other's still going after eight. It's a damn shame about the budget fuckwittery but really stunning how long some of this stuff can outlast its original mission lengths.

[russell-moore.livejournal.com]

NASA generally gets a raw deal when it comes to budget and positive press

the Hubble Telescope was also an awesome addition to the NASA fleet ... it was forced to be launched before it was ready due to political shitbaggery, then repaired and made functional during a shuttle mission (that whole capturing and repairing the Hubble, then releasing it back to perfect orbit is something not everyone acknowledges) ... and it is still sending back awesome images

the Landsat imagery is taken for granted by many, and I found out not long ago, many using the images really don't have a clue where they came from (which is another sad tale of its own)

so I join you in your salute to the little satellites who could ... and still do