from Hacker News

End of an Era: Landsat 7 Decommissioned After 25 Years of Earth Observation

by keepamovin on 6/5/25, 4:09 AM with 46 comments

• by jvanderbot on 6/5/25, 12:20 PM

  Landsat is one of those (for now, bygone) projects that the US Gov (and EU!) ran to the benefit of basically everyone. Imagine the benefit for any kind of land planning to have access to this data. USGS.gov has tons of soil and topology data, thanks in large part to this program, and essentially free for all.

  Other programs we just never think about include NOAA state of the art weather from which all "local weather" is possible, free and open air navigation charts, and free air traffic control. Think about how, scattered across the entire continental USA, there are a dense network of radio towers broadcasting homing signals so that any aircraft can navigate safely without subscription or cost.

  And then of course we have GPS.

  It's just unbelievable the things we've built and essentially given away for the benefit of humanity. Apolitically, I look forward to an era where we can do that again (without living on borrowed time, if possible).

• by followben on 6/5/25, 10:03 PM

  In 1990 I was super excited to have my high school work experience application accepted to CSIRO in Macquarie Park, only to find when I turned up that I’d spend the whole boring week cataloging magnetic tape from these dull satellites Landsat 4 & 5. The only time my greybeard supervisor seemed remotely animated was when he started imagining what imagery 6 & 7 would send back.

  How wrong I was; what this now greybeard wouldn’t give to rummage through that lab again.

  RIP #7.

• by pqdbr on 6/5/25, 12:56 PM

  I don't understand this: article states it will drift as space debris for 55 years (!) before reentering the atmosphere? Why isn't this done immediately by just lowering it's orbit even further and letting it burn?

  > The final steps included carefully lowering the satellite's orbit to decrease the risk of collisions and ensuring that all energy sources, such as fuel and batteries, are depleted to prevent the satellite from accidentally turning back on or creating debris. As Landsat 7 begins this decommissioned phase, it will drift silently in orbit for about 55 years before reentering Earth’s atmosphere.

• by gnabgib on 6/5/25, 4:26 AM

  Related: End of an era: Landsat 7 mission takes final images (273 points, 8 months ago, 48 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41663465

• by mceoin on 6/5/25, 6:25 AM

  We're reaching a history / pre-history moment where the entire earth's history will be available as a high definition orb with video feed, scrollable through time.

• by Waterluvian on 6/6/25, 4:16 AM

  Aww. That was a primary source of data for my undergrad and grad studies of geography. Everyone remembers their first false colour composite. Seeing the vegetation just pop. Then you’re hooked.

• by wewewedxfgdf on 6/5/25, 7:33 PM

  Do these things continue to do their work, picturing and transmitting data, even after being decommissioned? Or do they need constant human attention and thus go silent?

• by Animats on 6/5/25, 5:49 PM

  Oh, good, there's still Landsat 8 and 9 working. The title suggested that perhaps this was part of a plan to cut down observations of climate change.

• by wffurr on 6/5/25, 1:10 PM

  I loved how early Landsat imagery featured in the movie Kong: Skull Island about finding a mysterious lost island in the Pacific.

• by jgalt212 on 6/6/25, 1:15 PM

  That side by side image of Vegas shows they've shrugged off all the losses of the GFC.