§60111 Landsat Program Management

Summary

The Administrator (head of the space agency) and the Secretary of Defense must run the Landsat program together. They must set up one coordinated management team and write a management plan that explains who does what and who pays for it. The top goal is to keep unenhanced Landsat data coming without interruption by building and operating a Landsat 7 as soon as possible. Landsat 7 must be at least as capable as Landsat 6 and include a tracking and data-relay communications link. The plan must include a baseline budget that both sides agree to for developing and operating Landsat 7, with each side paying about the same total amount over the satellite’s life. Any extra improvements beyond that baseline must be paid for by specific agencies that agree to fund them and only if those changes won’t threaten continuous data. The management team must buy, launch, and run Landsat 7. It must serve civilian, national security, commercial, and foreign users; keep unenhanced data unclassified and generally available (except as allowed by other law); acquire high‑priority data for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (established by the Global Change Research Act of 1990) and for national security; oversee relevant contracts; run a technology demonstration program; and send copies of data to the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive. They may contract with private companies for operations and preprocessing, subject to available funding and existing contract rules. They must seek impartial public advice from a wide range of scientists, users, industries, and diverse people. Every two years they must report to Congress on public comments received, respond to those comments, give data-use volumes by category, and offer any policy or program recommendations.