Virginia Norwood, founding figure in field of satellite land imaging,dies at 96

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Thursday, March 30, 2023
NASA pioneer Virginia Norwood, 'Mother of Landsat,' dies at 96
As a pioneering woman, Virginia Norwood designed and championed a technology that's foundational to how we get images of earth from space.

Virginia Norwood, a woman who changed the way we see the world, died over the weekend at the age of 96.

Norwood, known as the "Mother of Landsat," according to NASA, was a founding figure in the field of satellite land imaging. She designed and championed a piece of technology that is foundational to how we get images of the earth from space.

The pioneering woman graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked on several innovative programs that changed the world, NASA added.

She developed the Multispectral Scanner, which was key to the development of NASA's longest-running program for getting satellite imagery from space.

The Landsat program is a joint program between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.