posted 03-31-2023 09:09 AM               

The launch of the satellite in July 1972 was a crowning achievement for Ms. Norwood. She became known as the "mother of Landsat" and credited with helping bring a completely new perspective and understanding of the planet and its interlocking features and ecosystems.

Ms. Norwood's Multispectral Scanner — capturing visible colors and other wavelengths not picked up on normal equipment such as infrared — took the existing satellite imagery beyond just looking at the surface. Her scanner brought insights into aspects such as water quality, crop health, soil moisture and snowpack density...

She already had triumphs on the moon under her belt. The lunar probe Surveyor 1, which touched down in June 1966, was NASA's first craft to make it safely to the moon's surface. Surveyor 1 and the subsequent Surveyors during the 1960s were scouts seeking basic questions: What was the moon's crust like, and where were the best potential spots to land a crewed mission?

"They didn't want the man to fall down a crack in the moon," Ms. Norwood recalled.

Her job, along with the microwave group she led at Hughes, was to develop transmitters and receivers on Surveyor to pick up NASA's commands.