Satellite News

Rocket: Atlas V; Payload: Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) / Landsat 8; Date: 11 February 2013, 1802 UTC; Launch site: Vandenberg Air Force Base, USA. The LDCM spacecraft separated from the rocket 79 minutes after launch and the first signal was received 3 minutes later at a ground station in Svalbard, Norway.

Rocket: Soyuz-U; Payload: Progress M-18M [Progress 50P]; Date: 11 February 2013, 1441 UTC; Launch site: Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The cargo vessel docked to the International Space Station on 2040 UTC.

Landsat 5 successfully set the new Guinness World Records title for ‘Longest-operating Earth observation satellite’ as stated in an e-mail from Guinness World Records sent to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Outliving its three-year design life, Landsat 5 delivered data of Earth’s land surface for 28 years and 10 months.