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On Aug. 9, 2021, technicians ready the payload adapter (PMA) for mating operations in preparation for NASA’s Landsat 9 mission at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. On one end, the PMA will attach to the second stage of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. On the other, it will attach to the evolved expendable vehicle secondary payload adapter – the piece of flight hardware that connects the spacecraft to the PMA. Landsat 9 will launch on the Atlas V from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg in September 2021. The launch is being managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center, America’s multi-user spaceport. The Landsat 9 satellite will continue the nearly 50-year legacy of previous Landsat missions. It will monitor key natural and economic resources from orbit. Landsat 9 is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The satellite will carry two instruments: the Operational Land Imager 2, which collects images of Earth’s landscapes in visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared light, and the Thermal Infrared Sensor 2, which measures the temperature of land surfaces. Like its predecessors, Landsat 9 is a joint mission between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.