Planet Talk

Landsat Launch!

Tomorrow, NASA has planned to launch Landsat 9, one of its newest, most powerful satellites. Landsat 9 is set to lift off of the Vandenberg Space Force Base atop an Atlas V Rocket. What makes this launch so cool and unique?

Landsat 9, once in orbit, will be able to capture an image of the ENTIRE earth every 16 days. When put into collaboration with Landsat 8, this task can even be accomplished every 8 days. Landsat satellites have been studying the Earth since 1972, each intended to collect more information about our planet. The main power and purpose of these Landsat satellites is to track the changes of Earth and Earth’s environmental conditions. Landsat 9 will be able to monitor Earth’s natural resources, varying due to climate change. With the observation skills of this satellite, we will be able to better understand natural and human-caused phenomena, such as extreme weather, powerful storms, fires, urbanization, drought, biomass changes, and much more.

This particular Landsat satellite costed NASA a grand total of $750 million, which surprisingly, is a rather low budget. NASA was able to cut out $90 million of their expected spending budget.

Landsat 9 is scheduled to launch tomorrow, September 27, at 2:12 pm (EDT). Feel free to check it out at this link: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive

In other news, take a look at https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/usa/ to find out which planets, meteors, or other astronomical events you can see from where you live!

Sources: https://www.space.com/nasa-landsat-9-earth-observation-satellite-go-for-launch, https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-landsat-satellite-program-and-why-it-important?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products

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