An Atlas V rocket carrying Landsat 8 seen just after launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. (NASA)

NASA’s latest Earth-observing satellite rocketed into space today continuing a program which began more than 40 years ago.

An Atlas V rocket carrying the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California.

NASA officials called today’s launch “picture perfect.”   The spacecraft is now on its own after a successful separation from the Centaur upper stage.

The LDCM is the eighth in a series of global observational spacecraft called Landsat, a collaborative effort between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

According to NASA, it will play a critical role in monitoring, understanding and managing the resources, such as food and water, needed to sustain human life.

After three months of testing in orbit, the satellite will become known as Landsat 8, and all operational control of the spacecraft will transfer to USGS.

All Landsat data and imaging will continue to be collected by USGS primary ground stations in South Dakota and Australia.

Orbiting Earth every 99 minutes, Landsat 8 will be able to image Earth every 16 days as it circles the globe in a near polar orbit. Two new sophisticated instruments, Operational Land Imager (OLI) and the Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS), will allow Landsat 8 to provide image and data information that wasn’t possible with previous Landsat satellites.

Landsat 7 took these images showing the significant shrinkage of central Asia’s Aral Sea from 1977 to 2010 due to water diversion for agricultural use. (USGS)

The OLI will cover wide areas of the Earth’s surface, sending back data and high definition images to help observers distinguish between various surfaces; such as urban, agricultural and forested areas.

The TIRS will use new technology which applies quantum physics to measure land surface temperature in two thermal bands, helping observers differentiate the temperature of the Earth’s surface from that of the atmosphere.

The Landsat mission to study and monitor our planet’s land masses began with the launch of Landsat 1  in 1972.

Since then, Landsat 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 have all been put into service.  Landsat satellites 1 through 4 were taken out of service from the late 1970s through the early 1990s.

Landsat 5 , launched in 1984, was recently taken out of service and Landsat 6 never made it into orbit after a fuel line exploded seven minutes after liftoff.  Along with the just-launched Landsat 8, Landsat 7, which was sent into orbit in 1999, is the only remaining Landsat observing satellite still in service.

Landsat satellites snapped these Washington state images of  Mount St. Helens, which was surrounded by forests in 1974. Three months after the 1980 volcanic eruption, devastation caused by the blast is evident. By 2011, much of the damaged region had started to regrow. (USGS)

The imaging and data provided by the Landsat spacecraft  have helped scientists  better understand our planet’s climate, carbon cycle, ecosystems, water cycle, biogeochemistry and changes to Earth’s surface, as well as our understanding of visible effects  human have made to land surfaces.

NASA and USGS say the information provided by Landsat over the last 40 years has helped improve human and biodiversity health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery, and agriculture, which in turn has helped develop the world economy.

NASA video overview of the LDCM Mission

Artist drawing of Landsat-5 in space (Image: USGS)

The longest operating Earth-observing satellite is about to be decommissioned by the US Geological Survey.

The USGS has begun the task of lowering Landsat-5 from its operational orbit.  The first series of maneuvers in that effort is likely to take place within the next month.

Landsat-5 was the fifth of seven satellites launched as part of the Landsat program, which has been acquiring satellite imagery of Earth since 1972.

Launched from California on March 1, 1984, Landsat-5 has circled Earth more than 150,000 times.

According to the USGS, which helps manage the mission, the satellite has been an extraordinary success, providing valuable contributions to the global record of land change.

Its original mission was only supposed to last three years, but Landsat-5 continued to deliver imagery and data for more than 25 more years beyond that.

The satellite experienced a number of problems over the years, but scientists and technicians managed to bring it back from the brink of failure.

This image of the abandoned city of Pripyat, home to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was taken by Landsat-5 three days after the April 26, 1986, nuclear accident. (NASA)

However, the recent failure of one of its gyroscopes proved to be one problem too many, finally bringing Landsat-5′s decades-long mission to an end.

“This is the end of an era for a remarkable satellite, and the fact that it flew for almost three decades is a testament to the NASA engineers and the USGS team who launched it and kept it flying well beyond its expected lifetime,” said Anne Castle, Department of the Interior assistant secretary for Water and Science. “The Landsat program is the gold standard of satellite observation, providing an invaluable public record of our planet that helps us tackle critical land, water, and environmental issues.”

Over more than a quarter of a century, Landsat-5  observed and sent back Earth imagery and data  reflecting the many changes which have taken place on our planet, not only from natural hazards and a changing climate, but also due to land use practices.

It observed the eruption of Mount Saint Helens, the 1991 Kuwaiti oil fires set by a fleeing Iraqi military, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, as well as rainforest depletion, wildfires, floods, global crop production, and the expansion and retreat of the Earth’s ice shelves.

Image taken by Landsat-5 in 1991 shows inky-black smoke pouring from burning oil wells which were set afire by defeated Iraqi military forces as they retreated from Kuwait. (NASA)

“Any major event since 1984 that left a mark on this Earth larger than a football field was likely recorded by Landsat-5, whether it was a hurricane, a tsunami, a wildfire, deforestation, or an oil spill,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “We look forward to a long and productive continuation of the Landsat program, but it is unlikely there will ever be another satellite that matches the outstanding longevity of Landsat-5.”

Landsat-5 observations have helped increase our understanding and awareness of the impact humans have on the land, according to the USGS.

With Landsat-5 out of commission, a number of Earth-observing satellites put into space by other governments and private companies, continue to operate.

Landsat-7, which launched in 1999, and the upcoming  Landsat-8 (LDCM), which launches in 2013, will take up where Landsat-5 left off, continuing to keep watch over an ever-changing planet.