Landsat Leader Takes a Breather

Jay Feuquay has been coordinator of the U.S. Geological SurveyТs Land Remote Sensing Program since September 2002. That means he worries, among other things, about Landsat. And, with the bugs that hit the sensor in 2003 and its continuity mission bids turned down, he worried a lot. Lately though, heТs calmer, according to an interview in Federal Times. Why? The White House has approved a plan to place a Landsat-style imager on the National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). The first launch is scheduled in 2009, which means thereТll be a few more years of making due with whatТs already in space. The biggest users of Landsat? The Department of Agriculture and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.