Earth-Observing Satellite To Launch, Send Images to SD
by Associated Press
February 08, 2013 4:40 PM
NASA is set to launch a new Earth-observing satellite designed to carry on the tradition of documenting changes to the planet's glaciers, forests and coastlines.
Mission managers gave the OK earlier this week to proceed with Monday's launch. The Landsat satellite was scheduled to be lifted into orbit from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard an Atlas V rocket.
It would be the eighth such satellite launched as part of the Landsat series, which began in 1972. For the past four decades, the satellites have kept a watchful eye on Earth.
The latest Landsat is expected to beam back 400 images a day to ground stations in South Dakota (EROS Data Center), Alaska and Norway.
The $855 million project is managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
