Atlas 5
New eye on planet Earth rockets into orbit from California
NASA and United Launch Alliance deployed a new Landsat satellite in orbit Monday after liftoff on an Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, marking the 2,000th launch from the West Coast spaceport since 1958 and extending a series of Earth observations used by farmers, urban planners, and climate scientists.
Live coverage: Atlas 5 rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base
NASA and United Launch Alliance launched the Landsat 9 satellite aboard an Atlas 5 rocket Monday at 11:12 a.m. PDT (2:12 p.m. EDT; 1812 GMT) from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The new satellite, developed in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, will extend an unbroken nearly 50-year record of environmental images.
Landsat 9 lifted atop launcher to extend unbroken environmental data record
The next Landsat observatory has been mounted on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in California for liftoff Sept. 27, continuing an unbroken record of Earth observations to track urban sprawl, water usage, tropical deforestation, retreating glaciers, and more over the last half-century.