Author Carly Chap

At 2:12 p.m., the Landsat 9, a NASA satellite designed to monitor the Earth’s land surface, successfully launched. Monday at 8:00 a.m. EDT, from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Landsat 9 was launched from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 3E on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in a joint mission with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Around 83 minutes after launch, the Svalbard satellite-monitoring ground station in Norway received signals from the spacecraft. As it approaches its final orbital altitude of 438 miles (705 kilometers), Landsat 9 is performing as expected. “NASA studies our own planet…