The Landsat program is the longest running enterprise for acquisition of satellite imagery of Earth.
On July 23, 1972 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite was launched. This was eventually renamed to Landsat.
The most recent, Landsat 7, was launched on April 15, 1999. The instruments on the Landsat satellites have acquired millions of images. The images, archived in the USA and at Landsat receiving stations around the world, are a unique resource for global change research and applications in agriculture, cartography, geology, forestry, regional planning, surveillance, education and national security.