Office of the Secretary Contact: Frank Quimby
Feb. 4, 2005

President Bush Proposes Increase
in USGS Landsat 7 Funding for FY 2006

WASHINGTON - President Bush's FY 2006 budget calls for increasing the U.S.
Geological Survey's Landsat 7 budget by $12 million so that this important
earth-imaging satellite program can continue to provide critical
information to scientists, emergency relief officials, land managers and
planners.

Half of that increase would be used to ensure the continued operation of
Landsat 7, while the other half would replenish funds from activities
deferred as a result of a proposed reprogramming for 2005 Landsat 7
operations. The 2006 budget also requests $7.5 million so that USGS can
begin work on an upgraded ground-processing system to acquire, process,
archive and distribute data from a new generation of satellite-based land
image sensors. This Landsat Data Continuity Mission is expected to begin
operations in 2009.

"The President's budget would preserve the Landsat program's 30-year
unbroken record of monitoring and documenting critical changes in the
Earth's surface," Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in announcing the
funding proposal. "The funds will ensure that those who depend on these
satellite images for public safety, research and planning will continue to
receive them."�

USGS Director Charles Groat said," This increase will enable the USGS to
not only continue current Landsat 7 operations but also provide long-term
monitoring information that is critical for maintaining the health and
safety of our communities, our economy and our environment." Groat noted
that, "Landsat 7 images of tsunami damaged coastlines in the Indian Ocean
are being used by relief organization to make practical, well-informed
decisions as to where their efforts are most urgently needed and how best
to carry out that work.â"

Landsat is the longest running civilian program providing vital images of
the Earth's land surface from space. The first Landsat satellite was
launched in 1972 and the program took a giant leap forward technologically
with the launch of Landsat 7 in 1999. Landsat satellites instruments have
acquired more than 1.7 million moderate-resolution images of the Earth's
surface, providing a unique resource for scientists who study agriculture,
geology, forestry, and for regional planning, education, mapping and global
change research.

--DOI--

Karen Wood
Public Affairs Specialist
U.S. Geological Survey, Office of Communications