NASA launches climate tracking satellite Landsat 9 from California

NASA launched the Landsat 9 satellite on Monday from California at 2:12 pm ET. The satellite was aboard United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and has been sent skywards to track events related to climate change, which range from deforestation to wildfires.

The Landsat 9, which was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, has launched with the aim of it joining the Landsat 8 and collect images while orbiting Earth, NASA said.

According to media reports, the spacecraft ascended towards the sky through a thick cover of clouds, however, the weather was not considered unfavourable during the launch. A while after the launch, the booster engine cut off and separated from the payload of the Landsat 9, NASA announced on Twitter.

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Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, said in a statement, “Landsat is the longest continuous global satellite record of the Earth’s surface. It helps farmers & scientists understand and manage land resources, and all of that is needed to sustain human life.”

Jeff Masek, a project scientist at NASA, described the core functions and objectives of the spacecraft. He said that Landsat 9 will remain in Earth’s orbit “to continue collecting images from across the planet to monitor essential resources, including crops, irrigation water and forests”, according to media reports.

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A project of NASA and the United States Geological Survey, Landsat 9 will work in tandem with a predecessor, Landsat 8, to extend a nearly 50-year record of land and coastal region observations that began with the launch of the first Landsat in 1972.

Landsat 9 will take the orbital track of Landsat 7, which will be decommissioned, according to reports from Associated Press.

Capturing changes in the planet’s landscape ranging from the growth of cities to the movements of glaciers, the Landsat program is the longest continuous record of Earth observation from space, according to NASA.