Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

Summary of Issues
The following is a summary of the issues that have to be addressed as the Federal government
moves toward an operational land remote sensing satellite system:
[15] 1. Continuity of Data in the 1980s
a. Operations
• Whether to fund, construct and launch additional Landsat D series satellites
with tape recorders to provide continuity in the acquisition of data from
space until a Fully Operational System can be deployed?
• Whether to improve the existing Landsat D ground segment at the Goddard
Space Flight Center to provide continuous processing of the acquired data
into timely and reliable standard data products?
• Whether to transfer responsibility for command and control of the Landsat
D space and ground segments from NASA to NOAA?
• Whether to transfer responsibility for archiving and disseminating land
remote sensing satellite standard data products from the Department of the
Interior to NOAA, and whether to co-locate these functions with the satellite
command and control and preprocessing facilities at the Goddard Space
Flight Center?
b. Management
• When to submit to Congress an Administration bill that authorizes NOAA to
own and manage an operational land remote sensing satellite system until
that system is transferred to another entity?
2. Initiation of a Fully Operational System
• How to validate user requirements and their priorities?
• When to establish a Fully Operational System utilizing new sensors that meet a
broad range of user needs?
[16] 3. Pricing Policies and Financial Assistance
• How to establish initial price increases for direct reception and for data and standard
data products that are consistent for foreign and domestic users, provide adequate
advance notice of price increases, and encourage potential users to invest in
support equipment and reduce use of competing methods of data collection?
• When to implement price increases?
• How to fund the capital and operating costs of the Interim and Fully Operational
Systems that exceed revenues?
4. Institution for Private Sector Involvement
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• What, if any, institutional framework for private sector ownership should be submitted
to Congress?
• What mechanisms for regulating and providing Federal financial assistance to the
private sector should be provided in any bill authorizing an institutional framework
for private sector involvement?
• What policies should control the activities of any private sector owner for ownership
of data and standard data products, for conditioning their dissemination on