Posted: Thu, Sep 11, 2003, 2:03 PM ET (1803 GMT)
A problem with a key component of the Landsat 7 remote sensing satellite appears to be beyond repair, making use of data collected by the spacecraft difficult at best. The problem with the Scan Line Corrector (SLC) on the spacecraft, which corrects for the motion of the spacecraft as it takes images of the Earth, was first noticed in May. Engineers spent the summer trying to isolate the problem, hoping it was related to software or onboard electronics that could be corrected. All efforts to correct the SLC problem have failed, however, and project officials believe the problem is mechanical in nature and thus cannot be corrected. The SLC has been turned off as the project tried ton develop software that can process the uncorrected data. The first data processed in this manner should be available to researchers in November.

Related Links:

•  Space News article (subscription required)
•  Landsat 7 problem report page