Recent Imagery
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LDCM Launch Success!
LDCM Launch Success!
We are thrilled to report that on February 11, 2013 at 1:02 PM Eastern Standard Time (10:02 AM PST), an Atlas V rocket successfully carried the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The 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 deployed 86 minutes after launch, and the spacecraft is already generating power. LDCM is on course to reach a sun-synchronous polar orbit of 438 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth by April 2013.
NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey jointly manage the Landsat Program. The LDCM spacecraft is the eighth in the satellite series and soon will be renamed Landsat 8. Landsat satellites have been around since 1972, imaging the entire Earth’s surface once every 16 days. For more information, visit: eospso.nasa.gov/content/landsat-data-continuity-mission.