Landsat 9 Satellite Separates From Second Stage, Traveling on Its Own

A graphic of Landsat 9 shows successful separation from the United Launch Alliance Centaur upper stage just over an hour and 20 minutes after liftoff.
An animated graphic shows successful separation of the Landsat 9 observatory from the United Launch Alliance Centaur second stage just over an hour and 20 minutes after liftoff. Photo credit: NASA TV

The Landsat 9 satellite has separated from the Centaur second stage.

Once online, Landsat 9 will take its place as the most advanced satellite in the Landsat series and extend the data record of Earth’s land surface that began with the first Landsat satellite in 1972. Landsat’s high-quality scientific data makes multi-decadal time series studies possible, and its data are regularly used for land management efforts around the world.