Landsat 5
Landsat 5 was a low Earth orbit satellite launched on March 1, 1984, to collect imagery of the surface of Earth. A continuation of the Landsat Program, Landsat 5 was jointly managed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Data from Landsat 5 was collected and distributed from the USGS's Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS).
Artist's rendering of Landsat 5. | |
| Mission type | Earth imaging |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / NOAA |
| COSPAR ID | 1984-021A |
| SATCAT no. | 14780 |
| Mission duration | 29 years, 3 months and 4 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Bus | Multimission Modular Spacecraft |
| Manufacturer | Fairchild Industries |
| Launch mass | 1,938 kilograms (4,273 lb) |
| Dry mass | 1,407 kilograms (3,102 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 1 March 1984 |
| Rocket | Delta 3920 |
| Launch site | Vandenberg SLC-2W |
| End of mission | |
| Disposal | Placed in graveyard orbit |
| Deactivated | 5 June 2013 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Sun-synchronous |
| Perigee altitude | 694 kilometers (431 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 701 kilometers (436 mi) |
| Inclination | 98.2 degrees |
| Period | 98.72 minutes |
| Repeat interval | 16 days |
| Epoch | 1 April 1984 |
After 29 years in space, Landsat 5 was officially decommissioned on June 5, 2013. Near the end of its mission, Landsat 5's use was hampered by equipment failures, and it was largely superseded by Landsat 7 and Landsat 8. Mission scientists anticipated the satellite will re-enter Earth's atmosphere and disintegrate around 2034.
Recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest-operating Earth-observing satellite mission in history, Landsat 5 orbited the planet more than 150,000 times while transmitting more than 2.5 million images of land surface conditions around the world, greatly outliving its original three-year design life.