Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

294
Document II-31
Document title: Zbigniew Brzezinski, The White House, Presidential Directive/NSC-54,
“Civil Operational Remote Sensing,” November 16, 1979.
Source: NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Office, NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
When the Nixon administration’s Bureau of the Budget agreed to finance an experimental multiagency
Earth resources observation program in 1970, it was on the condition that such a system
would have to prove its effectiveness before any commitment to an operational program. In 1978 and
1979, the Carter administration commissioned studies to determine what should be done with the
Landsat program. The first study (Document II-30) concluded that the federal government should
move to an operational system run by NASA. The second study, however, focused on the feasibility of
turning control of the Landsat system over to private industry. It was this second study that carried
more weight in the deliberations leading to Presidential Directive/NSC-54. This document outlines the
November 1979 decision by President Jimmy Carter to name the Department of Commerce’s National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) the lead agency for the Landsat program. Also,
NOAA would be responsible for exploring ways to increase private-sector involvement.
Presidential Directive/NSC-54
OBSERVING THE EARTH FROM SPACE
TO: The Secretary of State
The Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Interior
The Secretary of Agriculture
The Secretary of Commerce
The Secretary of Transportation
The Secretary of Energy
The Director, Office of Management and Budget
The Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs and Policy
The Administrator, Agency for International Development
The Director, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
The Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Director of Central Intelligence
The Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
The Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency
The Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
The Director, National Science Foundation
SUBJECT: Civil Operational Remote Sensing
November 16, 1979
The President has approved the civil space policy discussed below. The policy amplifies
that established in PD/NSC-37—National Space Policy and PD/NSC-42—Civil and
Further National Space Policy. . . .
[in the original, there was still a “blacked-out” classified area of the document in this position]
2. LAND PROGRAMS. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration