Virginia Norwood, a pioneer in satellite land imaging, dies at age 96

Virginia Norwood sits at the Storm Detector Radar Set at the Army Signal Corps Laboratories in New Jersey in a photo displayed at the Institute for Radio Engineers Convention, Spring 1950. (Virginia Norwood via NASA)

Virginia Norwood, a founding figure in satellite land imaging who developed technology to scan the surface of the moon for safe landing sites and map our planet from space, died Sunday at age 96.

Norwood is best known for developing the Multispectral Scanner System that flew on the first Landsat satellite, making her the "Mother of Landsat," according to NASA.