Brian Dunbar
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                            May 20, 
1994
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Randee Exler
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone:  301/286-0697)

RELEASE No.: 94-78

NASA TAKES OVER LANDSAT 7 DEVELOPMENT CONTRACT

   NASA officials announced today that the agency had assumed the 
satellite-development contract for Landsat 7 from the Department 
of Defense (DoD).  The contract with Martin Marietta Astro Space, 
Valley Forge, Pa., will now be managed by NASA's Goddard Space 
Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md. 

   Landsat 7 will provide essential land remote-sensing data 
critical to understanding environmental change and will support a 
broad range of other important Earth science and Earth-resource 
applications.  The Landsat program has provided more than 20 years 
of calibrated data to a broad user community of resource managers, 
global-change researchers, state and local governments, commercial 
users and the military.  Landsat data have been used, for example, 
to refine estimates of deforestation in the Amazon Basin.

   NASA assumes satellite development following the 
Administration's reevaluation of the program, led by the Office of 
Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).  Under the existing joint 
program office, DOD had primary responsibility for satellite 
development and launch, and NASA had primary responsibility for 
the ground system and data distribution.

   The new program was implemented May 5 under a Presidential 
Decision Directive signed by President Clinton.  NASA will have 
responsibility for development and launch of the satellite.  The 
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA 
will jointly develop the ground system, which NOAA will operate.  
The Earth Resource Observation Satellites (EROS) Data Center, 
Sioux Falls, S.D., of the Department of Interior's U.S. Geological 
Survey (USGS) will continue to be responsible for maintaining the 
government's archive of Landsat and other related remotely sensed 
data.

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   The existing program was reevaluated after changing national 
security concerns led to DOD's determination that Landsat 7 would 
not meet its needs.  DOD's withdrawal from the program, together 
with the failure of NOAA's Landsat 6 to reach orbit in October 
1993 and the advanced age of Landsats 4 and 5, led the 
Administration to reassess the program.

   The outcome of the OSTP's assessment is a new strategy designed 
to continue the Landsat program and extend the 20-year Landsat 
data set.  The estimated cost of the restructured program 
(development and operations), including $230 million already 
spent, is $754.7 million, about $125 million less than the joint 
NASA-DOD program.  Launch of Landsat 7 is planned for December 
1998.

   Landsat 7 is expected to be the functional equivalent of NOAA's 
Landsat 6, with enhancements to the spacecraft.  Landsat 6 carried 
an Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM), which would have provided 
images of the Earth's surface with resolution as good as 
approximately 15 meters (50 feet) in one band plus 30 metters (100 
feet) resolution in six bands covering the visible, near and 
short-wave infrared regions.  Landsat 7 will carry an ETM-Plus, 
under development by Hughes Santa Barbara Research Center, Calif., 
which will provide modest improvements over Landsat 6, primarily 
in instrument calibration and accuracy.

   Landsat 6 was intended to replace the existing Landsats 4 and 
5.  Launched in 1982 and 1984 respectively, Landsats 4 and 5 are 
operating well beyond their three-year design lives, and represent 
the only source of global, calibrated high spatial resolution 
measurements of the Earth's surface that can be compared to 
previous data records.

   Landsat 7 is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE), 
dedicated to studying how our global environment is changing.  
Using the unique perspective available from space, NASA is 
observing, monitoring and assessing large-scale environmental 
processes, with an emphasis on climate change.  MTPE satellite 
data, complemented by aircraft and ground data, are enabling us to 
better understand environmental changes, to determine how human 
activities have contributed to these changes  and to understand 
the consequences of such changes.  MTPE data, which NASA is 
distributing to researchers worldwide, are essential to humans 
making informed decisions about protecting their environment.

   The Landsat 7 spacecraft development is managed by GSFC for 
NASA's Office of Mission to Planet Earth, Washington, D.C.

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