Landsat 9 Spacecraft (Observatory) Cover Removal

Inside the Integrated Processing Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, technicians begin to remove the protective cover from NASA’s Landsat 9 observatory on July 14, 2021. Landsat 9 will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket 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 multiuser 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. 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. Landsat 9 is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.