Landsat Mission
Leading Landsat's Satellite Ground Systems and Operations
When you look at imagery sent to Earth by the USGS Landsat 8 satellite, you will see the work done by the General Dynamics and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) team. The USGS selected General Dynamics Mission Systems as the prime contractor to build the new Landsat Multi-satellite Operations Center (LMOC), where the team operates today’s Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 missions.
Landsat represents the world's longest, continuously acquired collection of space-based, moderate resolution, land remote sensing data. Initiated in 1966, millions of sensor images document and provide a free resource of documenting agriculture, geology, forestry, regional planning, education, mapping and global change research. Landsat images also provide life-saving information for emergency response and disaster relief operations.
Landsat 8 launched on February 11, 2013, and is the eighth satellite in the Landsat program. Landsat 9 is set to launch in 2020. As a joint initiative between the USGS and NASA, the Landsat Project supports government, commercial, civilian, military and educational communities and initiatives throughout the United States and worldwide.
In addition to assuming day-to-day flight and operations management of Landsat 8, the General Dynamics/USGS team will begin building the new LMOC at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. It will be a technologically advanced mission operations center managing two Landsat missions simultaneously.
“We have been working closely with our Landsat customers at USGS and NASA for more than 28 years and that relationship has created an unprecedented level of trust and confidence - they know what we can do because we’ve been working side-by-side for a long time.“ - Vic Gehr, General Dynamics Program Manager
In addition to flying Landsat 8 and building the new LMOC, our team will also plan, integrate, test and document all the hardware, software and training needed to move Landsat 9 from production, to prelaunch, launch, post-launch and day-to-day flight operations.
Whether it is supporting missions that monitor the Earth, like Landsat, or those traveling into deep space, our ground-segment operations make sure manned and unmanned spacecraft stay in touch with Earth, continuing their missions, often for decades at a time.
Landsat in the News: