LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASA is set to launch a new Earth-observing satellite designed to carry on the tradition of documenting changes to the planet's glaciers, forests and coastlines.
Mission managers gave the OK earlier this week to proceed with Monday's launch. The Landsat satellite was scheduled to be lifted into orbit from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard an Atlas V rocket.
It would be the eighth such satellite launched as part of the Landsat series, which began in 1972. For the past four decades, the satellites have kept a watchful eye on Earth. They have recorded retreating glaciers in Greenland and Alaska, captured the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption and the impacts of deforestation.
The $855 million project is managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
©2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
