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Landsat 3 History
March 5, 1978 - September 7, 1983
(Placed in standby mode March 31, 1983)
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Figure 1. Landsat 3
Participants
- NASA
- Department of the Interior (DOI) U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
- Manufacturer: General Electric (GE) Astrospace
Launch
- Date: March 5, 1978
- Vehicle: Delta 2910
- Launched by: NASA
- Site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Spacecraft
- Weight: approximately 953 kg (2,100 lbs)
- Overall height: 3 m (10 ft)
- Diameter: 1.5 m (5 ft)
- Solar array paddles extend out to a total of 4 m (13 ft)
- 3-axis stabilized using 4 wheels to +/-0.7° attitude control
- Twin solar array paddles (single-axis articulation)
- S-Band and Very High Frequency (VHF) communications
- Hydrazine propulsion system with 3 thrusters
Communications
- Direct downlink from 2, 30 minute wide-band video tape recorders
- Data rate: 15 Mbps
- Quantization: 6 bit (64 levels)
Orbit
- Worldwide Reference System-1 (WRS-1) path/row system
- Sun-synchronous, near-polar orbit at an altitude of 917 km (570 mi)
- Inclined at 99.1°
- Circled the Earth every 103 minutes
- Completed 14 orbits a day
- Repeat cycle: 18 days
- Swath width: 185 km (115 mi)
- Equatorial crossing time: 9:30 a.m. +/- 15 minutes
- Swath overlap (or sidelap) varied from 14 percent at the Equator to a maximum of approximately 85 percent at 81° north or south latitude
Sensors
Return Beam Vidicon (RBV)
- The RBV system on Landsat 3 used two cameras, mounted side-by-side, with panchromatic spectral response and higher spatial resolution (40 m) to complement the multispectral coverage provided by the Multispectral Scanner (MSS). Each of the cameras produced a swath of about 90 km (for a total swath of 180 km).
- 40 m resolution from 2, 80 m resolution cameras
- Two cameras with a panchromatic spectral response
- Data: 3.5 MHz video
Multispectral Scanner (MSS)
- Five spectral bands, including a thermal band:
- Band 4 Visible (0.5 to 0.6 µm)
- Band 5 Visible (0.6 to 0.7 µm)
- Band 6 Near-Infrared (0.7 to 0.8 µm)
- Band 7 Near-Infrared (0.8 to 1.1 µm)
- Band 8 Thermal (10.4 to 12.6 µm)
- Data: 100 kHz digital
- Six detectors for each reflective band provided six scan lines on each active scan
- Ground Sampling Interval (pixel size): 57 x 79 m
Other Characteristics
- Scene size: 170 km x 185 km (106 mi x 115 mi)
- Originally designated Landsat 3; also known as Landsat C
- Design Life: Minimum of 1 year
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U.S. Geological Survey