# Landsat 9
*missions*

## Specifications
- **operator**: usgs
- **actual launch**: "2021-09-27T00:00:00.000Z"
- **current status**: operational
- **orbit type**: Sun-synchronous, 705 km, 98.2 degree inclination, 10:12 LTDN, 16-day repeat solo / 8-day with Landsat 8
- **swath km**: 185
- **revisit days**: 16
- **tasking supported**: 0
- **archive depth years**: 5
- **last verified date**: 2026-05-24
- **verified by**: agency-doc
- **claim status**: agency-verified
- **paired revisit days**: 8

## Editorial
Landsat 9 is an Earth observation satellite operated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in partnership with NASA, and the most recent mission in the Landsat programme [^usgs-l9]. Launched on 27 September 2021 from Vandenberg Space Force Base aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket, the satellite was placed into a sun-synchronous near-polar orbit at 705 km altitude [^usgs-l9]. NASA managed the space segment and launch; USGS assumed full operational control in August 2022 [^usgs-l9].

The spacecraft was built by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (formerly Orbital ATK) on the LEOStar-3 bus platform, the same lineage used for Landsat 8 [^eoportal-l9]. It carries two primary instruments. The Operational Land Imager 2 (OLI-2), built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, is a pushbroom multispectral imager collecting nine reflective spectral bands from 0.43 to 2.29 micrometres plus a 15-metre panchromatic band [^usgs-l9]. OLI-2 captures data at 14-bit radiometric resolution, providing 16,384 intensity levels versus the 4,096 levels of its predecessor OLI on Landsat 8 [^usgs-l9]. The Thermal Infrared Sensor 2 (TIRS-2), built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, collects two thermal infrared bands at 100-metre native resolution using Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) arrays [^eoportal-l9]. TIRS-2 was redesigned to substantially reduce the stray-light anomaly that affected TIRS on Landsat 8.

Landsat 9 operates in coordination with Landsat 8, with the two satellites offset by 8 days in the same orbital plane, together delivering nearly 1,500 new scenes per day to the USGS archive [^usgs-l9]. The satellite acquires approximately 750 scenes daily on its own 16-day repeat cycle. All data are distributed free of charge through the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center as Landsat Collection 2 products, including Level-1 (radiometrically calibrated and orthorectified), Level-2 Surface Reflectance and Surface Temperature, and Level-3 Analysis Ready Data [^usgs-l9].

The mission is designed for a 5-year on-orbit life with consumables supporting more than 10 years of operations [^nasa-l9]. By July 2025, the USGS archive had received one million Landsat 9 Level-1 products.

## Compositional position
- Landsat 9 --[mission_payloads]--> oli-2 (products)

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Source: https://eo-atlas.org/missions/landsat-9
Maintainer: SpectraWorks B.V. (CC-BY 4.0)