Landsat 9 Spacecraft (Observatory) Lift Off of Remaining Contain

Inside the Integrated Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, technicians prepare to lift the Landsat 9 spacecraft up from the base of its protective container on July 8, 2021. Landsat 9 is being prepared for its launch atop the ULA Atlas V from Vandenberg in September 2021. The launch is being managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Landsat 9 will continue the nearly 50-year legacy of previous Landsat missions. It will monitor key natural and economic resources from orbit. Landsat 9 is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It will carry two instruments: the Operational Land Imager 2, which collects images of Earth’s landscapes in visible, near-infrared and shortwave infrared light, and the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2, which measures the temperature of land surfaces. Like its predecessors, Landsat 9 is a joint mission between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.