This report presents the results of a 3-month effort to assess the archiving requirements that should be imposed in the event of a transfer of the United States land remote-sensing satellite systems to the private sector. The emphasis is not on judging the desirability of the proposed transfer, but on recommending the requirements that should be included in the government's request for proposals (RFP) from potential bidders. The report is organized into seven sections: (1) background information; (2) the Landsat archive, providing an overview of Landsat spacecraft and sensors and other areas; (3) uses of Landsat data in agriculture, forestry, geology, land use, hydrology and marine resources, pollution monitoring, transportation and communications, developing nations, and basic research; (4) the preliminary assessment; (5) comments on tentative findings and recommendations (including those from selected federal agencies); (6) the draft RFP phase; and (7) reassessment and discussion of findings and 13 final recommendations. Two recommendations made are: the RFP should specify that the U.S. government will bear the responsibility and costs of maintaining an archive for land remote-sensing satellite data; the contractor should provide a basic data set to the U.S. government for the archive. (JN)