NASA successfully launches Landsat-9 into orbit; US VP Kamala Harris congratulates agency

NASA, on late September 27, successfully launched its newest powerful Earth-observation satellite Landsat-9 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The satellite, which is a continuation of the 50-year-old collaboration of NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), lifted off aboard the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The agency in its official press release informed that the satellite has reached its final orbital altitude of 705 kilometres (438 miles) and is working as expected. US Vice President Kamal Harris also took to Twitter to congratulate the agency on its success. 

Launch is a milestone for USGS-NASA partnership, collaborators said

Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland stated that the successful launch of the Landsat-9 has proved to be a milestone as the partnership between these two dates back to 1972. She further stated that the Landsat-9 will play an extremely crucial role in tackling climate change by providing data and imagery and will help in making important decisions concerning important issues like water use, wildfire impacts, coral reef degradation, glacier and ice-shelf retreat, and tropical deforestation. 

According to NASA, Karen St Germain, director of the Earth Science Division, at Washington-based NASA Headquarters said, “For nearly 50 years, Landsat satellites observed our home planet, providing an unparalleled record of how its surface has changed over timescales from days to decades.” Moreover, he affirmed that the data to be further obtained will help the scientists understand, predict, and plan for the future in a changing climate. The agency informed that Landsat-9 has joined its sister satellite Landsat-8 and both will now collect images of the whole earth every eight days.

Project Landsat-9

This project has been operational since 1972 and has collected images of the Earth and changes in land usage. The obtained data has helped scientists with evaluating glaciers, forests, coral reefs and their habitat health, agricultural productivity and water quality. The newly-launched satellite will do the same with advanced technologies like a high-resolution camera and a sensitive infrared sensor and is built to last almost five years. Apart from this, the Atlas rocket carrying Landsat-9 also lifted off with two tiny CubeSats called ‘CUTE’ and ‘CuPID’ that have been assigned with jobs like discovering hidden exoplanets and solving the Earth-Sun magnetic field mystery, respectively.

(Image: @NASAHQPHOTO/Twitter)