Landsat - 40 Years and Counting!

For nearly 40 years, Landsat satellites have been orbiting our planet, silent sentinels peacefully watching our land, sea, and air.  Landsats are very powerful instruments capable of “seeing” Earth in many ways and in spectra the human eye cannot see. 

The result is an unprecedented view of our home and incredible amounts of data to help scientists understand the impact of global warming and pollution.  Every person on Earth is impacted by Landsat’s mission.

And our future depends on the mission continuing as our understanding of our biosphere continues to expand.  Using tools like Landsat we can better understand our fragile world and our place in the cosmos.

Get to know Landsat in these pages and join NASA on its most important mission – the Mission to Planet Earth!

Exploration and Inspiration

Landsat: A Story of Exploration and Inspiration

The mission of the Landsat Program is to continuously capture moderate resolution images of the Earth's surface and share that data with the world’s scientists. Landsat is a continuous source of global, carefully measured images of the Earth's surface in many spectra – Landsat data is our best way of monitoring our changing planet.  It is a record unmatched in quality, detail, coverage, and value.

The images generated by the series of Landsat spacecraft have changed our understanding of our constantly changing world; they have changed and inspired us as well.  People whose lives have been changed by missions like Landsat speak in the following videos – theirs is a story of discovery and inspiration.

The message from Planet Earth with Rama Nemani:

Tyler Cole and Leland Melvin has a message about exploration:

Be inspired by the wisdom of Omekongo Dibinga:

A Most Beautiful Globe

Landsat: Views of Earth, a Most Beautiful Globe

Through the Landsat program we have a better understanding of climate and environmental changes and the challenges faced by nations around the world…enabling scientists, environmentalists, and land use practitioners to address the concern of leaders worldwide for preservation of Earth’s natural environment.

Landsat has allowed all of us to see the Earth in new ways and to appreciate the fragile nature of our biosphere.  These stunning images are your home from a high flying seat:

The Blue Marble:

Snowstorm in Western States:

Earth's City Lights:

Eruption of Klyuchevskaya Volcano:

Haze along the Himalaya:

Brushfires in Southwestern Australia:

Amazing Views

Landsat: Amazing Views Of Our Home World And The Skies Above It

The Landsat data series, begun in 1972, is the longest continuous record of changes in Earth’s surface as seen from space and the only satellite system designed and operated to repeatedly observe the global land surface at moderate resolution.

Freely available Landsat data provide a unique resource for people who work in agriculture, geology, forestry, regional planning, education, mapping, and global change research.

These videos convey the excitement of Landsat, the wonders of our world, and our cosmos:

Landsat - one of NASA's most important missions:

The wonders of your world:

The Earth in 60 Seconds from Space:

Time lapse views of our Milky Way Galaxy: