Denver Colorado Satellite Image poster

1975

Size: 23 x 29 inches

Poster is a satellite image of Denver taken by Landsat 1, known at the time as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite.

Image was commissioned by Petty Ray Geophysical, a company that did geological surveys looking mainly for oil deposits.

Landsat 1: Landsat 1 was launched on July 23, 1972; at that time the satellite was known as the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (ERTS). It was the first Earth-observing satellite to be launched with the express intent to study and monitor our planet’s landmasses.

To perform the monitoring, Landsat 1 carried two instruments: a camera system built by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) called the Return Beam Vidicon (RBV), and the Multispectral Scanner (MSS) built by the Hughes Aircraft Company (El Segundo, CA; NASA contract NAS 5-11255).