We Started Recording the Earth From Space Forty Years Ago and Haven't Stopped [Techversary]
These days it seems like we're constantly seeing gorgeous images of the Earth from space. It wasn't always that way. On July 23rd 1972, NASA launched ERTS-1 satellite into space to observe the planet. We've never seen ourselves the same since. ERTS-1—Landsat 1—was the first of seven satellites in the Landsat program, which has continuously recorded our planet for the last forty years. According to NASA's, the program was inspired by the ominous photographs taken by astronauts from space that showed us the first images of Earth from without. Can you blame us for wanting more? Can you imagine what it was like to see the Earth from space for the first time? The same curiosity that sent us out into space to try to learn more about distant galaxies suddenly left us with an unquenchable urge to stare back at ourselves. Landsat 1 beamed data back to Earth for six years, and was instrumental in halting—or at least slowing down—the ecological disaster in the Amazon by giving us...