51 U.S.C. CHAPTER 601 – LAND REMOTE SENSING POLICY ACT

SUBCHAPTER II–LANDSAT

Sec. 60111. Landsat Program Management

(a) Establishment.–The Administrator and the Secretary of Defense shall be responsible for management of the Landsat program. Such responsibility shall be carried out by establishing an integrated program management structure for the Landsat system.
(b) Management Plan.–The Administrator, the Secretary of Defense, and any other United States Government official the President designates as responsible for part of the Landsat program shall establish, through a management plan, the roles, responsibilities, and funding expectations for the Landsat program of the appropriate United States Government agencies. The management plan shall–

(1) specify that the fundamental goal of the Landsat Program Management is the continuity of unenhanced Landsat data through the acquisition and operation of a Landsat 7 satellite as quickly as practicable which is, at a minimum, functionally equivalent to the Landsat 6 satellite, with the addition of a tracking and data relay satellite communications capability;
(2) include a baseline funding profile that–

(A) is mutually acceptable to the Administration and the Department of Defense for the period covering the development and operation of Landsat 7; and
(B) provides for total funding responsibility of the Administration and the Department of Defense, respectively, to be approximately equal to the funding responsibility of the other as spread across the development and operational life of Landsat 7;

(3) specify that any improvements over the Landsat 6 functional equivalent capability for Landsat 7 will be funded by a specific sponsoring agency or agencies, in a manner agreed to by the Landsat Program Management, if the required funding exceeds the baseline funding profile required by paragraph (2), and that additional improvements will be sought only if the improvements will not jeopardize data continuity; and
(4) provide for a technology demonstration program whose objective shall be the demonstration of advanced land remote sensing technologies that may potentially yield a system which is less expensive to build and operate, and more responsive to data users, than is the current Landsat system.

(c) Responsibilities.–The Landsat Program Management shall be responsible for–

(1) Landsat 7 procurement, launch, and operations;
(2) ensuring that the operation of the Landsat system is responsive to the broad interests of the civilian, national security, commercial, and foreign users of the Landsat system;
(3) ensuring that all unenhanced Landsat data remain unclassified and that, except as provided in subsections (a) and (b) of section 60146 of this title, no restrictions are placed on the availability of unenhanced data;
(4) ensuring that land remote sensing data of high priority locations will be acquired by the Landsat 7 system as required to meet the needs of the United States Global Change Research Program, as established in the Global Change Research Act of 1990 (15 U.S.C. 2921 et seq.), and to meet the needs of national security users;
(5) Landsat data responsibilities pursuant to this chapter;
(6) oversight of Landsat contracts entered into under sections 102 and 103 of the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-555, 106 Stat. 4168);
(7) coordination of a technology demonstration program pursuant to section 60133 of this title; and
(8) ensuring that copies of data acquired by the Landsat system are provided to the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive.

(d) Authority To Contract.–The Landsat Program Management may, subject to appropriations and only under the existing contract authority of the United States Government agencies that compose the Landsat Program Management, enter into contracts with the private sector for services such as satellite operations and data preprocessing.
(e) Landsat Advisory Process.–

(1) Advice and comments.–The Landsat Program Management shall seek impartial advice and comments regarding the status, effectiveness, and operation of the Landsat system, using existing advisory committees and other appropriate mechanisms. Such advice shall be sought from individuals who represent–

(A) a broad range of perspectives on basic and applied science and operational needs with respect to land remote sensing data;
(B) the full spectrum of users of Landsat data, including representatives from United States Government agencies, State and local government agencies, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, value-added companies, the agricultural, mineral extraction, and other user industries, and the public; and
(C) a broad diversity of age groups, sexes, and races.

(2) Reports.–The Landsat Program Management shall prepare and submit biennially a report to Congress which–

(A) reports the public comments received pursuant to paragraph (1); and
(B) includes–

(i) a response to the public comments received pursuant to paragraph (1);
(ii) information on the volume of use, by category, of data from the Landsat system; and
(iii) any recommendations for policy or programmatic changes to improve the utility and operation of the Landsat system.

Sec. 60112. Transfer of Landsat 6 program responsibilities

The responsibilities of the Secretary with respect to Landsat 6 shall be transferred to the Landsat Program Management, as agreed to between the Secretary and the Landsat Program Management, pursuant to section 60111 of this title.

Sec. 60113. Data policy for Landsat 7

(a) Landsat 7 Data Policy.–The Landsat Program Management, in consultation with other appropriate United States Government agencies, shall develop a data policy for Landsat 7 which should–

(1) ensure that unenhanced data are available to all users at the cost of fulfilling user requests;
(2) ensure timely and dependable delivery of unenhanced data to the full spectrum of civilian, national security, commercial, and foreign users and the National Satellite Land Remote Sensing Data Archive;
(3) ensure that the United States retains ownership of all unenhanced data generated by Landsat 7;
(4) support the development of the commercial market for remote sensing data;
(5) ensure that the provision of commercial value-added services based on remote sensing data remains exclusively the function of the private sector; and
(6) to the extent possible, ensure that the data distribution system for Landsat 7 is compatible with the Earth Observing System Data and Information System.

(b) Additional Data Policy Considerations.–In addition, the data policy for Landsat 7 may provide for–

(1) United States private sector entities to operate ground receiving stations in the United States for Landsat 7 data;
(2) other means for direct access by private sector entities to unenhanced data from Landsat 7; and
(3) the United States Government to charge a per image fee, license fee, or other such fee to entities operating ground receiving stations or distributing Landsat 7 data.

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(Pub. L. 111-314, Subtitle VI, Chapter 601, Sec. 60111-113, Dec. 18, 2010, 124 Stat. 3411-3413)