Landsat Next Defined

Landsat Next is on the horizon—the new mission will not only ensure continuity of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surface, it will fundamentally transform the breadth and depth of actionable information freely available to end users.

While previous Landsat missions have all featured one satellite, Landsat Next will be a trio - a constellation of three observatories, circling the globe in unison. This new triplet configuration will greatly improve the temporal revisit time, from 16-days with Landsats 8 & 9, down to just 6 days.

With a revisit time of 6 days, Landsat Next will give scientists and data users a more precise view of how a scene changes over time. This can help highlight key stages of plant growth, and is useful for crop management and estimating yield.

Landsat Next looks to push the program’s spectral capabilities even further, boasting an additional 15 spectral bands, bringing the total to 26. With more than double the spectral bands of Landsat 8 + 9, users will be able to glean even more information from Landsat Next data, allowing for better resource management, such as tracking water quality and detecting harmful algal blooms.

It’s still early days for the Landsat Next mission - slated for launch in late 2030, there’s no shortage of work to be done over the next 7 years. But plans for the new triplet constellation, upgraded spatial and temporal resolutions and added spectral bands have the Landsat Next team excited.