Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

tem uses sensors located on satellites which transmit the data to ground receiving stations
for processing into usable data products. The current system is largely an experimental
program called Landsat managed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA). Information from the system has proven of value to a variety of public and private
sector users in the United States and abroad for helping to make decisions related to
such areas as agricultural crop forecasting, rangeland and forest management, mineral
and petroleum exploration, mapping, urban and regional land use planning, water quality
assessment and disaster assessment.
[2] Background
EXPLORING THE UNKNOWN 297
The issuance of the President’s decision regarding civil operational remote sensing
from space culminated a two-year Administration review of the nation’s space policy.
During this period, the Policy Review Committee (Space) was established and national
policy on space programs was clarified. In May 1978, the President announced that the
United States will encourage domestic commercial exploitation of space capabilities
under appropriate U.S. authorization and supervision. Further, in October 1978, the
President made a commitment to continue the availability of data from the Landsat program
for all classes of users. In his March 27, 1979, Science and Technology Message, the
President reiterated his Administration’s commitment to the continuity of land remote
sensing satellite data over the coming decade. Subsequently, Dr. Frank Press, the
President’s Science Advisor, in Administration testimony before the Senate Subcommittee
on Science, Technology, and Space on April 9, 1979, stated that “the Administration is
committed to an operational remote sensing system, although yet undefined.”
From October 1978, through the summer of 1979, Executive Branch agencies examined
the potential for integrating U.S. civil remote sensing satellite programs and for private
sector involvement in U.S. civil space activities. They recommended that all U.S. civil
operational remote sensing programs be managed by a single agency. The agencies also
reported that the private sector would be interested in assuming more responsibility for
land remote sensing from space if Federal policy and market uncertainties were clarified.
In November 1979, the President provided the framework within which a civil operational
land remote sensing satellite system should be implemented, and assigned to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Commerce the management
responsibility for civil operational land remote sensing activities in addition to its
ongoing atmospheric and oceanic responsibilities. NOAA’s related ongoing responsibilities
include managing the national civil operational meteorological satellite program and
the Commerce Department’s responsibilities for a joint operational demonstration by the
Department of Defense (DoD), NASA and Commerce of a National Oceanic Satellite
System (NOSS).
[3] The Executive Branch’s review of remote sensing satellite programs and policies was
paralleled by a series of Congressional hearings during the 96th Congress on operational
land remote sensing from space, including hearings before the House Subcommittee on
Space Science and Applications of the Committee on Science and Technology and the
Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space of the Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation. Two bills before the 96th Congress focused on
operational land remote sensing: S. 663, introduced by Senator Adlai E. Stevenson, which
proposed the establishment of an Earth Data and Information Service in NASA, and
S. 875, introduced by Senator Harrison Schmitt, which proposed the creation of a
for-profit Earth Resources Information Corporation.