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The Landsat Next contract, announced by NASA on June 12, 2024, includes a cost-plus-award-fee base period and a cost-plus-fixed-fee option period with a total value of $506.7 million. Raytheon will provide the design, engineering analyses, algorithms, fabrication, testing, delivery, and support for the Landsat Next Instruments. The work will primarily be performed at their facilities in El Segundo, California.

Landsat Next is a key component of the USGS/NASA Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) program, which aims to ensure the continuity of critical land imaging capabilities. The SLI program is dedicated to more effectively mapping, monitoring, and managing the Nation’s land, water, and coastal resources. 

Landsat’s economic benefit to the U.S. economy far surpasses its cost of development and operations. A USGS study found that Landsat data provided domestic and international entities an estimated 3.45 billion dollars in annual economic benefits in 2017. Nationally, it provided 2.06 billion dollars in returns to the economy. 

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Landsat Next represents a significant leap forward in Earth observation capabilities and builds upon the 50-year archive of existing Landsat data. 

The mission will consist of a constellation of three smaller satellites and will deliver twenty times the data with improved temporal, spatial, and spectral resolution of previous Landsat sensors. These advancements will support evolving and emerging applications in land, water, and climate science. 

The new 26-band super-spectral constellation will enhance existing and unlock new applications that support water quality and aquatic health assessments, crop production and soil conservation, forest management and monitoring, climate and snow dynamics research, and mineral mapping.

The Landsat Next mission is a partnership between USGS and NASA and ensures continuity of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surfaces. Landsat Next will fundamentally transform the breadth and depth of land surface information freely available to farmers, water and land-use managers, geologists, and other satellite data users across government, industry, and academia.

Following NASA’s work to build and launch Landsat satellites, the USGS then owns the Landsat missions and conducts satellite and ground system operations, data processing and archiving, and distributes Landsat imagery and information products. The USGS remains committed to providing high-quality Earth observation data to support resource management, environmental stewardship, climate resiliency, and scientific research.

Visit the Landsat Next webpage to learn more about the upcoming mission. 

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