The major professional society involved with remote sensing, ASPRS, has written to the U.S. Dept. of Interior, asking for a continuation of imagery collection from the partially crippled Landsat 7 satellite.
ASPRS notes that techniques may become available to allow the degraded imagery to be used, and that failure to collect imagery in the interim would represent a loss of valuable data.
Logistical support for Landsat 7 is handled by the U.S. Geological Survey, an Interior agency. USGS is under budget pressures, leading some to wonder if support for archiving of the satellite’s data might be suspended due to the disruption in the imaging system of the satellite.
In early June USGS monitors detected a problem with a mirror involved in maintaining geometric fidelity in the imaging system. The problem appeared to have begun on May 31.
More information: ASPRS news releases
More information: USGS Landsat Project page