LANDSAT DATA CONTINUITY MISSION OVERVIEW

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) is NASA’s eighth satellite in the Landsat series and continues the Landsat program’s critical role in monitoring, understanding and managing the resources needed for human sustainment such as food, water and forests. As our population surpasses seven billion people, the impact of human society on the planet will increase, and Landsat monitors those impacts as well as environmental changes.

With the longest unbroken data stream of Earth’s surface as seen from space, NASA’s Earth-observing Landsat fleet has provided the world with unprecedented information on land cover changes and their residual effects since 1972. The knowledge gained from 40 years of continuous data contributes to research on climate, carbon cycle, ecosystems, water cycle, biogeochemistry and changes to Earth’s surface, as well as our understanding of visible human effects on land surfaces. Building off that research, the Landsat imaging data set has, over time, led to the improvement of human and biodiversity health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture monitoring, all resulting in incalculable benefits to the U.S. and world economy.
The Landsat Data Continuity Mission, or LDCM, spacecraft arrived at Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 6:25 a.m. PST today. Crews are readying the spacecraft, which is positioned inside a payload fairing or nosecone that will protect it during launch, for hoisting and attachment to the top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V. Launch is scheduled for Feb. 11. 
image/ Info. source:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/landsat/overview/index.html