{"id":15295,"date":"2016-08-22T17:51:05","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T09:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/sophisticated-new-u-s-weather-observatory-being-readied-for-launch\/"},"modified":"2016-08-22T17:51:05","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T09:51:05","slug":"sophisticated-new-u-s-weather-observatory-being-readied-for-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/sophisticated-new-u-s-weather-observatory-being-readied-for-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophisticated new U.S. weather observatory being readied for launch"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The GOES R weather satellite folded up for launch. Credit: Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 On the cusp of advancing U.S. weather forecasting, a powerful new satellite was shipped from its Denver factory to the Cape today in preparation for launch in November.<\/p>\n

The first-of-its-kind observatory dubbed GOES R was flown aboard an Air Force C-5 transport aircraft from Lockheed Martin to the Kennedy Space Center to initiate its launch campaign.<\/p>\n

Liftoff aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is planned for Nov. 4 at 5:40 p.m. EDT (2140 GMT) from Cape Canaveral\u2019s Complex 41. The daily launch window extends 120 minutes.<\/p>\n

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R will orbit 22,300 miles above the equator in lockstep with the Americas to provide unprecedented new weather-forecast tools.<\/p>\n

GOES R, plus three future sister-satellites, is a collaborative project between NASA \u2014 which ordered the spacecraft, instruments and launchers \u2014 and operator NOAA. Lockheed Martin built the craft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will provide continuous imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth\u2019s western hemisphere, and also support space weather prediction,\u201d said Sandra Smalley, head of NASA\u2019s Joint Agency Satellite Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the next generation (of GOES satellites) providing a major improvement in quality, quantity and timeliness of the data collected. Overall, it will provide visual and IR imagery, lightning mapping, space weather monitoring and solar imaging. It will accomplish all of this using six instruments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An
An artist\u2019s concept of the GOES R spacecraft. Credit: NOAA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The primary instrument \u2014 the Advanced Baseline Imager \u2014 will show the motion of clouds and weather systems in visible and infrared bands that television meteorologists use in newscasts. The instrument will monitor water vapor, measure land and sea surface temperature and depict rainfall rates.<\/p>\n

It will produce real-time estimates of central pressure and maximum sustained winds for tracking the intensity of hurricanes, and measure the key ingredients of severe weather like winds, cloud growth and lightning to improve tornado warnings.<\/p>\n

The ABI will collect three times more data at four times better resolution while providing more than five times faster coverage than current GOES satellites, NOAA says.<\/p>\n

GOES R also carries the first Geostationary Lightning Mapper. It will use a high-speed camera to detect in-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning over the Americas and surrounding ocean areas. GLM promises to increase the warning time for severe weather.<\/p>\n

GOES R also has instruments to monitor the Sun, detect solar storm eruptions and alert when the space weather arrives at Earth. Such storms can impact communications, disrupt power grids, threaten the health of astronauts and harm satellites.<\/p>\n

The Atlas 5 rockets that will launch GOES R \u2014 and GOES S in 2018 \u2014 will fly in the 541 configuration with a five-meter fairing, four solid rocket boosters and a single-engine Centaur upper stage.<\/p>\n

\"An
An illustration of GOES R being deployed by Centaur. Credit: Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A three-hour ascent featuring three burns by the Centaur will deliver the craft into a customized high-perigee geosynchronous transfer orbit of 3,600 by 22,000 miles at 12.9 degrees inclination. Five burns of the satellite\u2019s main engine will bring the craft to geostationary orbit within 8 days of launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are huge satellites. GOES R is getting ready to launch, so it\u2019s fully integrated, and GOES S is well along the way,\u201d said Smalley.<\/p>\n

\u201cGOES R has had some technical challenges, so (GOES) S has basically been used as a spares spacecraft for (GOES) R, but they\u2019ve made great progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

After touching down at the Shuttle Landing Facility at 3:16 p.m. today, the satellite will be taken to the commercial Astrotech processing facility in Titusville this evening to be unboxed from its shipping container for the start of final testing, fueling and encapsulation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis milestone is a great achievement for the entire GOES-R team, who have worked tirelessly to get the spacecraft to Florida,\u201d said Greg Mandt, NOAA\u2019s GOES R system program director. \u201cMoving forward, we are focused on preparing this highly advanced weather satellite for its historic launch in just a few short months.\u201d<\/p>\n

GOES R will be renamed GOES 16 once it reaches geostationary orbit. Initially, controllers position the satellite at 89.5 degrees West longitude for an extensive year-long checkout and validation. It then awaits call-up to replace either the GOES West or GOES East operational observatories covering the U.S.<\/p>\n

The GOES program dates back to 1975. Unlike today\u2019s three-axis stabilized satellites, the first GOES were spin-stabilized and viewed Earth only about ten percent of the time.<\/p>\n

\"All
All of the launches in the GOES satellite series are shown here aboard Delta and Atlas rockets. Photos by NASA\/NOAA\/ULA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The GOES R, S, T and U series is expected to sequentially extend geostationary weather satellite operations to 2036. Each satellite is capable of five years in-space storage and 10 years of use.<\/p>\n

GOES T launches in 2019 and GOES U follows in 2024. Launch vehicles have not yet been assigned to those two spacecraft.<\/p>\n

Currently, GOES 15 is the GOES West satellite at 135 degrees West longitude. It was launched as GOES P atop a Delta 4 rocket in 2010. GOES 13 \u2014 launched as GOES N in 2006 \u2014 is the GOES East satellite at 75 degrees West. The GOES 14 launched in 2009 as GOES O serves as the in-space spare, ready to be pressed into service at a moment\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n

Our Atlas archive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The GOES R weather satellite folded up for launch. Credit: Lockheed Martin CAPE CANAVERAL \u2014 On the cusp of advancing U.S. weather forecasting, a powerful new satellite was shipped from its Denver factory to the Cape today in preparation for launch in November. The first-of-its-kind observatory dubbed GOES R was flown aboard an Air Force […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[724,3449,1357,472,190,975,750,650],"class_list":["post-15295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-atlas-5","tag-av-069","tag-goes-r","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-nasa","tag-noaa","tag-united-launch-alliance","tag-weather"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}