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Eighth Landsat Satellite Arrives at Vandenberg

By Jeffrey Hill | December 26, 2012

      [Satellite TODAY 12-26-12] NASA’s Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) satellite has arrived at its California launch site at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in preparation for its launch in early February, the agency announced Dec. 26.
         The LDCM also serves as a mission for the U.S. Geological Survey, representing the eighth satellite in the Landsat series dating back to 1972. The LDCM satellite will proceed through final tests and be integrated with its Orbital Sciences-built Atlas 5 rocket. The planned launch date is Feb. 11.
         “LDCM builds on and strengthens a key American resource: a decades-long, unbroken Landsat-gathered record of our planet’s natural resources, particularly its food, water and forests,” Jim Irons, Landsat project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement.