It was intended to enable the development of future Earth imaging observatories that will have a significant increase in performance while also having reduced cost and mass.

EO-1 captured scenes such as the ash after the World Trade Center attacks, the flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, volcanic eruptions and a large methane leak in southern California.

Small maneuvers were successful for debris avoidance but long duration burns for orbit maintenance could not be performed due to insufficient fuel.

[5] The 2013 Senior Review Panel recommended that EO-1 be decommissioned in 2015, when the Mean Local Time (MLT) equatorial crossing would "have degraded to the point where many products will lose their usefulness."

In 2015, the Senior Review Panel stated that they could not support this justification for the extended mission beyond 2016 and recommended that it be decommissioned on 30 September 2016, when an analysis indicated that a MLT crossing of 08:00 would occur.