GOES Weather Satellite Launched

A backup to the GOES weather satellite lifted off at 6:51 p.m. (EDT) on Saturday night from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The satellite named GOES-O for now will be a backup to the system that provides about 60 percent of the images of Earth.

NOAA has two operational GOES satellites hovering 22,300 miles above the equator – GOES-12, in the east, and GOES-11, in the west – each provide continuous observations of environmental conditions of North, Central and South America and surrounding oceans. While these two are operational, another GOES satellite, GOES-13, is in orbital storage and can be activated if one of the other satellites experiences trouble.

With the launch of the latest GOES satellite, NOAA will have another backup. Approximately 24 days after launch, Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems will turn engineering control over to NASA. About five months later, NASA will transfer operational control of GOES-14 to NOAA. The satellite will be checked out, stored in orbit and available for activation should one of the operational GOES satellites degrade or exhaust its fuel.