Hughes Santa Barbara Research Center initiated design and production of the first three MSS Multi-Spectral Scanner in the same year man landed on the moon, 1969. The first prototype MSS was within nine months of autumn 1970 was tested when it by scanning Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.
The first center line for the primary layout of the MSS was by Jim Kodak, the opto-mechanical design engineer, designed the space probe Pioneer optical camera, the first instrument, the planetary system.
The program was called the Earth Resources Observation Satellites program when it launched in 1966, but the name was changed in 1975 by Landsat. In 1979, 54 presidential directive under President of the United States Jimmy Carter transferred Landsat operations from NASA to NOAA, recommended that the development of long-term operational system with four additional satellite Landsat over 3, and recommended transition to the private sector operation of Landsat. This happened in 1985, when the Earth Observation Satellite Company (EOSAT), a partnership of Hughes Aircraft and RCA, was developed by NOAA operation of the Landsat system under a ten-year contract. EOSAT operated Landsats 4 and 5, had exclusive marketing rights for Landsat data, and was to build Landsats 6 and 7
In 1989, This transition is not yet complete when NOAA's funding for the Landsat program and ran NOAA directed that Landsats 4 and 5 will be shut down, but an act of Congress of the United States, the emergency funding for the rest of the year. The funding ran again in 1990 and once again Congress, the funds for emergency NOAA for six more months, requested that the agencies that used Landsat data provide the funds for the other six months of next year. The same problem and solution, the financing was repeated in 1991. In 1992, various efforts have been made to finally funds for the procurement of Landsats, and follow the instructions on continuing operations, but until the end of the year no longer processing EOSAT Landsat data. Landsat-6 was finally on 5 October 1993, but was lost in a launch failure. Processing of Landsat 4 and 5 data was EOSAT again in 1994. NASA Landsat 7 finally started on 15 April 1999.
The value of the Landsat program was approved by Congress in October 1992, when it returned to the country Remote Sensing Policy Act (Public Law 102-555) approving the acquisition of Landsat 7, and ensuring the continued availability of Landsat data and digital images, the lowest cost possible, to traditional and new users of the data.
References:
- Wikipedia, Landsat Program.
