Landsat 2 is the second satellite of the Landsat program. The spacecraft originally carried a designation of ERTS-B (Earth Resource Technology Satellite B) but was renamed "Landsat 2" prior to its launch on January 22, 1975. The objective of the satellite was to acquire global, seasonal data in medium resolution from a near-polar, Sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite, built by General Electric, acquired data with the Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) and the Multispectral Scanner (MSS). Despite having a design life of one year, Landsat 2 operated for over seven years, finally ceasing operations on February 25, 1982.

Landsat 2 (originally designated ERTS-B) was the second Landsat satellite launched. The first, Landsat 1 (originally designated ERTA-1), took and transmitted over 100,000 photos from the two-and-a-half years between the two satellites' launches.

Landsat 2 was manufactured by General Electric's Space Division in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. This satellite was considered an experiment, unlike Landsat 1. Landsat 2 was originally designated as ERTS-B (Earth Resources Technology Satellite-B) and was renamed prior to launch. The satellite was designed to operate for a minimum of one year. The primary objective of the MSS was to acquire global, seasonal data in medium resolution from a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit. NASA administrator James C. Fletcher said, "If I had to pick one spacecraft, one space-age development to save the world, I would pick ERTS and the satellites which I believe will be evolved from it later in this decade."

The spacecraft was 3 meters (9.8 ft) tall with a 1.5 m (4.9 ft) diameter. Two solar panel arrays that were 4 m (13 ft) long each, with single axis articulation, generated power for the spacecraft. Landsat 2 had a liftoff weight of 953 kilograms (2,101 lb).

The attitude was controlled with three hydrazine thrusters. The satellite transmitted data back to the ground with S-Band and very high frequency (VHF) transmitters, at a rate of 15 Mbit/s and 6-bit quantization. The satellite had three-axis fine attitude control with four wheels, which gave it +/- 0.7 degrees of control. The attitude control system also used horizon scanners, Sun sensors, and a command antenna. A freon gas propulsion system allowed the satellite to make fine attitude adjustments. Landsat 2 could store 30 minutes' worth of data on two wide-band video tape recorders.

As in the case of its predecessor Landsat 1, the satellite's payload included two remote sensing instruments, the Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) and the Multispectral Scanner (MSS). The specifications for these instruments were identical to those of the instruments carried on Landsat 1. The data acquired by the MSS was considered more scientifically useful than the data returned from the RBV, which was rarely used and considered only for engineering evaluation purposes.

The MSS, built by Hughes Aircraft Corporation, was capable of detecting four different spectral bands: band 4 visible green, band 5 visible red, band 6 near infrared, and band 7 near infrared. Each spectral band had different scientific uses. Band 4 primarily investigated areas of water, with the ability to detect sediment laden areas and areas of shallow water. Band 5 was primarily used to identify cultural features. Band 6 sensed the vegetation boundaries between land, water, and landforms. Band 7 was the most proficient at sensing through atmospheric haze, and identified water and land boundaries, vegetation, and landforms. The scene size for the scanners of the MSS was 170 kilometers (110 mi) to 185 km (115 mi), which is the area the sensors could survey per scan. The ground sampling interval of the MSS was 57 m (187 ft) to 79 m (259 ft), which is medium resolution.

With its three cameras, the RBV was capable of acquiring 3.5 MHz video with 80 m (260 ft) resolution in three spectral bands: blue to green (475–575 nm), orange to red (580–680 nm), and red to near infrared (690–820 nm). Besides engineering evaluation purposes, the primary use of the RBV was for cartography of remote areas.