July 17, 2007, Boulder, CO--Ball Aerospace & Technologies was awarded a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center contract to build the Operational Land Imager (OLI) for the eighth Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM).
"We take great pride in being chosen to help continue NASA's longest continuous imagery data record of our planet," said David L. Taylor, president and CEO of Ball Aerospace. "From Radarsat to QuikSCAT, and from QuickBird to its soon to be launched successor, WorldView I, Ball Aerospace has a strong legacy in both Earth science and remote-sensing missions."
The OLI instrument provides 15 m (490 ft.) panchromatic and 30 m multi-spectral Earth-imaging spatial-resolution capability. OLI includes a 185 km swath allowing the entire globe to be imaged every 16 days. OLI instrument delivery is slated for September 2010, with launch anticipated in 2011.
The Landsat Program is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). For more than 30 years, Landsat satellites have continuously and consistently archived images of Earth, creating a historical archive unmatched in quality, detail, coverage, and length. The multispectral imagery is gathered for applications that include agricultural monitoring, natural resource management, and land-use planning.
For more information, visit www.ballaerospace.com.