Satellite imagery options for small/medium sized countries?

Question

I need to create land cover classifications for a couple countries in central/eastern Asia. The largest country is 50,000km^2 and the smallest is 10,000km^2. What are my options for recent imagery? At this stage resolution is not my primary concern, so Landsat would be acceptable, but the scan line errors in Landsat 7 prevent me from collecting useful imagery from 2003 onward.

Likewise, I am willing to pay for imagery, but very high resolution data may require too many images to feasibly process.

My goal is to create a land cover classification that can be compared with a previous classification (~1990) created from a composite of Landsat imagery and aerial photos.

EDIT:

It appears that Landsat 8 data is now available through Glovis - imagery goes back to about April 2013. Finding cloud-free imagery is a bit difficult given how few images there are.

Answer 1

SPOT and IRS (Indian Remote Sensing) are always good options. However, you will most likely have to pay for them. If you are looking for the newest imagery you will pay large. You need to assess the delta in time that is acceptable. Most satellite companies consider anything that is over 6 months to a year old as archives. So if this delta of time is acceptable, then you may be able to get imagery at a significantly reduced price.