Landsat 9 Spacecraft Mate to EPSA

Technicians move the Landsat 9 spacecraft over to the evolved expendable vehicle secondary payload adapter (ESPA) for mating operations inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Aug. 11, 2021. The ESPA connects Landsat 9 and the payload adapter (PMA) – the PMA then will attach to the second stage of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Landsat 9 will launch on the Atlas V from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg in September 2021. The launch is being managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center, America’s multi-user spaceport. The Landsat 9 satellite 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. The satellite 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.