A Planet in Focus - Landsat 7's Legacy

Launched in 1999, Landsat 7 carried forward NASA and USGS’s mission to continuously monitor Earth’s surface, capturing stunning, high-resolution imagery every 16 days for over two decades. This video pays tribute to the satellite’s remarkable 25-year journey—from its first light over South Dakota to its final pass over Las Vegas in 2024.

Equipped with the powerful Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat 7 transformed how we study agriculture, urban growth, wildfires, coral reefs, and even Antarctica. Despite a scan line corrector malfunction in 2003, scientists developed innovative methods to keep the data flowing—ultimately enabling over 3 million images, thousands of scientific publications, and billions in economic benefits.

Let's take a look back at how this mission reshaped our understanding of a changing planet—and laid the foundation for the future of Earth observation.

MUSIC CREDITS:

“Science to Save Us” - Florian Moenks [GEMA] & Aron Wright [PRS], Freshworx Music Limited
“Data Dynamism” - Florian Moenks [GEMA] & Aron Wright [PRS], Freshworx Music Limited
“Gazing at the Galaxy” - Florian Moenks [GEMA] & Aron Wright [PRS], Freshworx Music Limited


This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14848. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, the music and some individual imagery may have been obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on such imagery may be found here: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14848. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines.

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