Landsat 3 Credit - NASA

The first 3 Landsat missions were also known as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS) series. Their images demonstrated the usefulness of remote sensing data for land surveys, land management, water resource planning, agricultural forecasting, forest management, sea ice movement, and cartography.

When Landsat 1 was finally removed from service in January 1978 due to tape recorder faults, it had returned over 300,000 images. Landsat 2 was removed from service on 25 February 1982, and Landsat 3 was removed from service on 31 March 1983. Archived images from these missions were available through EOSAT.

The spacecraft design had significant inheritance from the Nimbus program (also manufactured by General Electric). The satellites were 3-axis stabilized using 4 momentum wheels to 0.7 deg accuracy. Twin solar paddles (single-axis articulation) provided 1000 W (BOL peak), 515 W (BOL ave) and recharged NiCd batteries. S-Band and VHF communications were via a 1 W transponder. The hydrazine propulsion system had 3 thrusters. Data downlink rate was 15 Mbps. The payload included the Carried Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) and Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) imaging sensors. The MSS covered 0.5 to 12.6 µ m and provided 75 m resolution at best with a 185 km swath width. The RBV covered 0.5 to 0.75 µ m and provided 40 m resolution with a 185 km swath width. Payload mass was about 150 kg.

Design Life: 1 year. Typical orbit: Each nearly exactly 900 x 920 km, sun-synchronous. Length: 3.02 m (9.90 ft). Maximum Diameter: 1.50 m (4.90 ft). Span: 4.00 m (13.10 ft). Mass: 910 kg (2,000 lb). Associated Launch Vehicle: Delta 0100, Delta 2000.

• 1972 July 23 - Landsat 1 - Program: Landsat. Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Vehicle: Delta 0100. Mass: 816 kg (1,798 lb). Perigee: 898 km (557 mi). Apogee: 909 km (564 mi). Inclination: 99.10 deg. Period: 103.10 min.

  Earth Resources Technology Satellite. Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C).

• 1975 January 22 - Landsat 2 - Program: Landsat. Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Vehicle: Delta 2000. Mass: 953 kg (2,101 lb). Perigee: 900 km (550 mi). Apogee: 913 km (567 mi). Inclination: 99.30 deg. Period: 103.10 min.

  Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C).

• 1978 January 1 - Landsat 1 removed from service. -

  Landsat 1 was finally removed from service in January 1978 due to tape recorder faults. It had returned over 300,000 images.

• 1978 March 5 - Landsat 3 - Program: Landsat. Launch Site: Vandenberg. Launch Vehicle: Delta 2000. Mass: 960 kg (2,110 lb). Perigee: 895 km (556 mi). Apogee: 915 km (568 mi). Inclination: 98.90 deg. Period: 103.10 min.

  Spacecraft engaged in practical applications and uses of space technology such as weather or communication (US Cat C).

• 1982 February 25 - Landsat 2 removed from service. -

• 1983 March 31 - Landsat 3 removed from service. -

• McDowell, Jonathan, Launch Log, October 1998. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited since Sputnik. Accessed at: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/space/log/launch.html.

• Krebs, Gunter, Gunter's Space Page, University of Frankfurt, 1996. Accessed at: http://www.skyrocket.de/space.

• JPL Mission and Spacecraft Library, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1997. Accessed at: http://msl.jpl.nasa.gov/home.html.

• USAF Satellite Database, USAF Institute of Technology, 1995. Accessed at: ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/.

• McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.