Spanning a period of more than 15 years, the Landsat Legacy Project Team
researched, complied and published, in late 2017, Landsat's Enduring
Legacy that describes the myriad of factors that surround the nearly
half-century of monitoring the Earth's surface with Landsat. Born of
technologies that evolved from the World War II, Landsat not only
pioneered global land monitoring but, in the process, drove innovation
in digital imaging technologies and encouraged development of global
imagery archives. Access to this imagery led to early breakthroughs in
natural resources assessments, particularly for agriculture, forestry,
and geology. The technical and political aspects of the remote sensing
revolution led by Landsat were not simple or straightforward. Early
conflicts between civilian and defense satellite remote sensing users
gave way to disagreements over whether the Landsat system should be a
public service or a private enterprise. Only the combined engagement of
civilian and defense organizations ultimately saved this pioneer
satellite land monitoring program from termination. With the emergence
of 21st century Earth system science research, coupled with greatly
enhanced data computing, storage and transfer capabilities, the full
value of the Landsat concept and its continuous, calibrated nearly
half-century global archive has been recognized and embraced. The
attempts to privatize Landsat had dramatic negative impacts on the
collection, availability, and use of the data. These impacts should
inform deliberations on the future of the Landsat program moving toward
a Sustained Land Imaging program following Landsat 9. Discussion of
Landsat's future continues, but its heritage will not be forgotten.