Return to Landsat Missions Timeline
Landsat 6 History
October 5, 1993 (did not achieve orbit)
Previous | Next
Participants
- NASA
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- Department of the Interior (DOI) U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
- Spacecraft bus: Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space
- Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM): Hughes Santa Barbara Research Center
Launch
- Date: October 5, 1993
- Vehicle: Titan II
- Launched by: NASA
- Site: Western Test Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
Spacecraft
- Power provided by a single sun-tracking solar array and two 50 Ampere-Hour (AHr), Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) batteries
- Attitude control provided through four reaction wheels (pitch, yaw, roll, and skew); three 2-channel gyros with celestial drift updating; a static Earth sensor; a 1750 processor; and torque rods and magnetometers for momentum uploading
- Orbit control and backup momentum unloading provided through a blow-down monopropellant hydrazine system with a single tank containing 270 pounds of hydrazine, associated plumbing, and twelve 1-pound-thrust jets
- Weight: approx. 4,800 lbs (2,200 kg)
- Length: 4.3 m (14 ft)
- Diameter: 2.8 m (9 ft)
Communications
- Direct downlink with solid state recorders capable of storing 380 gigabits of data (100 scenes)
- Data rate: 85 Mbps
Orbit (if obtained)
- Worldwide Reference System-2 (WRS-2) path/row system
- Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 705 km (438 mi)
- Inclined 98.2° (slightly retrograde)
- Repeat cycle: 16 days
- Equatorial crossing time: 10:00 a.m. +/- 15 minutes
Sensors
Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM)
- Eight spectral bands, including a pan and thermal band:
- Band 1 Visible (0.45 - 0.52 µm) 30 m
- Band 2 Visible (0.52 - 0.60 µm) 30 m
- Band 3 Visible (0.63 - 0.69 µm) 30 m
- Band 4 Near-Infrared (0.76 - 0.90 µm) 30 m
- Band 5 Near-Infrared (1.55 - 1.75 µm) 30 m
- Band 6 Thermal (10.40 - 12.50 µm) 120 m
- Band 7 Mid-Infrared (2.08 - 2.35 µm) 30 m
- Band 8 Panchromatic (PAN) (0.52 - 0.90 µm) 15 m
- Ground Sampling Interval (pixel size): 30 m reflective, 120 m thermal
Other Characteristics
- Scene size: 170 km x 185 km (106 mi x 115 mi)
Previous |
Next
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey