Editing Landsat program (section)

== History ==
[[File:Virginia Norwood VT-Storm-Radar-web.png|thumb|upright=1.0|right|[[Virginia T. Norwood|Virginia Norwood]], "The Mother of Landsat", designed the multispectral scanner.]]
[[File:Landsat 40th.ogv|thumb|upright=1.0|right|Interview with Jim Irons – Landsat 8 Project Scientist – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center]]
In 1965, [[William Pecora|William T. Pecora]], the then director of the [[United States Geological Survey]], proposed the idea of a remote sensing satellite program to gather facts about the natural resources of our planet. Pecora stated that the program was "conceived in 1966 largely as a direct result of the demonstrated utility of the Mercury and Gemini orbital photography to Earth resource studies." While weather satellites had been monitoring Earth's atmosphere since 1960 and were largely considered useful, there was no appreciation of terrain data from space until the mid-1960s. So, when Landsat 1 was proposed, it met with intense opposition from the Bureau of Budget and those who argued high-altitude aircraft would be the fiscally responsible choice for Earth remote sensing. Concurrently, the Department of Defense feared that a civilian program such as Landsat would compromise the secrecy of their reconnaissance missions. Additionally, there were geopolitical concerns about photographing foreign countries without permission. In 1965, NASA began methodical investigations of Earth remote sensing using instruments mounted on planes. In 1966, the USGS convinced the [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Secretary of the Interior]], [[Stewart L. Udall|Stewart Udall]], to announce that the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior (DOI)]] was going to proceed with its own Earth-observing satellite program. This savvy political stunt coerced NASA to expedite the building of Landsat. But budgetary constraints and sensor disagreements between application agencies (notably the [[United States Department of Agriculture|Department of Agriculture]] and DOI) again stymied the satellite construction process. Finally, by 1970 NASA had a green light to build a satellite. Remarkably, within only two years, Landsat 1 was launched, heralding a new age of remote sensing of land from space.<ref name="Landsat History">{{cite news|title=Landsat History|agency=NASA|url=https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/about/history|access-date=2021-07-05}}</ref>

The [[Hughes Aircraft Company]] from Santa Barbara Research Center initiated, designed, and fabricated the first three [[Multispectral Scanner]]s (MSS) in 1969. The first MSS prototype, designed by [[Virginia T. Norwood|Virginia Norwood]], was completed within nine months, in the fall of 1970. It was tested by scanning [[Half Dome]] at [[Yosemite National Park]]. For this design work Norwood was called "The Mother of Landsat".<ref name="Pennisi">{{cite journal |last1=Pennisi |first1=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Pennisi |title=Meet the Landsat pioneer who fought to revolutionize Earth observation |journal=Science |date=10 September 2021 |volume=373 |issue=6561 |page=1292 |doi=10.1126/science.acx9080|s2cid=239215521 }}</ref>

Working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, [[Valerie Thomas|Valerie L. Thomas]] managed the development of early Landsat image processing software systems and became the resident expert on the Computer Compatible Tapes, or CCTs, that were used to store early Landsat imagery. Thomas was one of the image processing specialists who facilitated the ambitious 'Large Area Crop Inventory Experiment', known as LACIE — a project that showed for the first time that global crop monitoring could be done through [[remote sensing]] with Landsat satellite imagery.<ref>[https://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/a-face-behind-landsat-images-meet-dr-valerie-l-thomas/ NASA Landsat Science, A Face Behind Landsat Images: Meet Dr. Valerie L. Thomas] {{PD-notice}}</ref>

The program was initially called the Earth Resources Technology Satellites Program, which was used from 1966 to 1975. In 1975, the name was changed to Landsat. In 1979, [[President of the United States]] [[Jimmy Carter]]'s Presidential Directive 54<ref name="jimmycarterlibrary.gov">{{cite web|title=Presidential Directive 54|url=https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/pddirectives/pd54.pdf |website=jimmycarterlibrary.gov|publisher=Jimmy Carter Library|access-date=April 18, 2017|date=November 16, 1979|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130202926/https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/documents/pddirectives/pd54.pdf|archive-date=January 30, 2017}} {{PD-notice}}</ref><ref name="Folger">{{cite web|last1=Folger |first1=Peter|title=Landsat: Overview and Issues for Congress|url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40594.pdf|website=fas.org|publisher=Congressional Research Service|access-date=April 18, 2017|date=October 27, 2014}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> transferred Landsat operations from [[NASA]] to [[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]] (NOAA), recommended development of a long term operational system with four additional satellites beyond Landsat 3, and recommended transition to private sector operation of Landsat. This occurred in 1985 when the Earth Observation Satellite Company (EOSAT), a partnership of [[Hughes Aircraft Company]] and [[RCA]], was selected by NOAA to operate the Landsat system with a ten-year contract. EOSAT operated Landsat 4 and Landsat 5, had exclusive rights to market Landsat data, and was to build Landsats 6 and 7.

In 1989, this transition had not been fully completed when NOAA's funding for the Landsat program was due to run out (NOAA had not requested any funding, and [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] had appropriated only six months of funding for the fiscal year)<ref name="Space Economics">{{cite book|last1=Greenberg|first1=Joel S.|last2=Hertzfeld|first2=Henry|title=Space Economics|publisher=AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics)|year=1992|page=372|isbn=978-1-56347-042-4}}</ref> and NOAA directed that Landsat 4 and Landsat 5 be shut down.<ref name="fundsrunout">{{cite news|title=The government, saying it ran out of money, pulled the plug on two environmental satellites|agency=United Press International (UPI)|date=1989-03-02|author=Vincent del Giudice|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/03/02/The-government-saying-it-ran-out-of-money-pulled/6994604818000/|access-date=2023-03-13}}</ref>

The head of the newly formed [[National Space Council]], Vice President [[Dan Quayle]], noted the situation and arranged emergency funding that allowed the program to continue with the data archives intact.<ref name="Space Economics"/><ref name="fundsrunout"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Quayle backs satellite program|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=Sun Journal (Lewiston)|date=1989-03-07 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7L0gAAAAIBAJ&dq=satellite%20quayle&pg=1441%2C798034|access-date=2010-05-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=U.S. Halts Plan to Turn Off the Landsat Satellites|first=John Noble|last=Wilford|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1989-03-17|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/17/us/us-halts-plan-to-turn-off-the-landsat-satellites.html?pagewanted=1|access-date=2010-05-19}}</ref>

Again in 1990 and 1991, Congress provided only half of the year's funding to NOAA, requesting that agencies that used Landsat data provide the funding for the other six months of the upcoming year.<ref name="Space Economics"/>

In 1992, various efforts were made to procure funding for follow on Landsats and continued operations, but by the end of the year EOSAT ceased processing Landsat data. Landsat 6 was finally launched on 5 October 1993, but was lost in a launch failure. Processing of Landsat 4 and 5 data was resumed by EOSAT in 1994. NASA finally launched Landsat 7 on 15 April 1999.

The value of the Landsat program was recognized by Congress in October 1992 when it passed the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act (Public Law 102-555) authorizing the procurement of Landsat 7 and assuring the continued availability of Landsat digital data and images, at the lowest possible cost, to traditional and new users of the data.