The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has prepared a list of programs that can be trimmed in order to make up for an expected $6 million shortfall in its Landsat satellite operations budget in 2005, an agency official said. The USGS also has appealed to the U.S. departments of Defense and Agriculture, the two biggest federal users of Landsat imagery, for funding assistance, according to Ike Kelley, the USGS budget officer. The USGS, a division of the U.S. Department of Interior, operates a pair of Landsat land remote sensing satellites and funds that activity through a combination of federal budget appropriations, data sales and fees charged to foreign operators of Landsat ground stations. The Landsat 7 and Landsat 5 satellites cost about $21 million a year to operate, and the USGS's 2005 budget request in- cludes $8 million for that activity, Kelley said.
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