Landsat 9 Power-Positive and Proceeding Smoothly Through On-Orbit Checkout
Posted by NASA on October 4, 2021
On the cloudy fall morning of Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, the Landsat 9 satellite takes-off from Vandenberg Space Flight Center aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket. Kim Shiflett, NASA
Thus far during checkout, the key milestones that Landsat 9 has passed include:
deployment of the solar array and power-positive state;
initiation and testing of all spacecraft subsystems, including attitude control, propulsion, solid state recorder, and payload interfaces
successful communications between the Landsat Multi-satellite Operations Center (LMOC) and spacecraft
successful contacts between the spacecraft and Landsat Ground Network (LGN) data receiving stations
On Saturday, October 2, the two Landsat 9 instruments (OLI-2 and TIRS-2) were turned on and warmed up, beginning a period of outgassing that will last for the next three weeks and which must occur prior to initial Earth imaging for calibration.
Orbit insertion by the ULA Atlas V was extremely precise, and as a result Landsat 9 currently has fuel beyond the 10-year mission requirement.
Landsat 9 is on schedule to acquire a “first-light” Earth image during early November, followed by ascent to its final orbital altitude and start of normal operations in early January.
Go Landsat 9!
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