It was a modified version of the Nimbus 4 meteorological satellite and was launched on July 23, 1972, by a Delta 900 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The Bureau of Budget (BOB) did not grant funding to build the satellite, but provided $2 million to continue the feasibility studies.

Two solar panel arrays that were 4 m (13 ft) long each, with single axis articulation, generated power for the spacecraft.

An attitude control system permitted the spacecraft's orientation to be maintained within plus or minus 0.7 degrees in all three axes.

[8] ERTS-A had two sensors to achieve its primary objectives: the return beam vidicon (RBV) and the multispectral scanner (MSS).

[3] ERTS-A was launched July 23, 1972, on a Delta 0900 out of Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

[8] In 1976, Landsat 1 discovered a tiny uninhabited island 20 kilometers off the eastern coast of Canada.

NASA oversaw 300 researchers that evaluated the data that Landsat 1 transmitted back to Earth.

[3] Landsat 1 images were used in the first study of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), now an ubiquitous measure of global plant greenness.