In photos: NASA launches Landsat 9 Earth observation satellite

(Image credit: Randy Beaudoin/NASA)

Inside the Vertical Integration Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, technicians work to attach the Landsat 9 spacecraft to the evolved expendable vehicle secondary payload adapter (ESPA), on Aug. 11, 2021. 

The ESPA connects Landsat 9 to the payload adapter so that it can be attached to the second stage of the Atlas V rocket.