ULA - Atlas V / GOES-S Mission poster / NOAA & NASA - GOES-S Mission patch.
March 1, 2018
Image above: The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NOAA’s GOES-S satellite launched at 5:02 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo credit: NASA.
Booster ignition and liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 5:02 p.m. EST, from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying NOAA’s GOES-S satellite. The rocket is on its way, carrying NOAA’s second in a series of four next-generation weather satellites.
Liftoff of GOES-S
About four minutes into flight, a series of key events occurs in rapid succession: Atlas booster engine cutoff, separation of the booster from the Centaur upper stage, ignition of the Centaur main engine for its first of two burns, then jettison of the payload fairing.
Image above: Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S). Image Credits: NASA/NOAA.
NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) is the second in the GOES-R Series of weather satellites that includes GOES-R (now named GOES-16), -S, -T and -U. The GOES-S satellite will be renamed GOES-17 when it reaches geostationary orbit. Once the satellite is declared operational, late this year, it will occupy NOAA’s GOES-West position and provide faster, more accurate data for tracking wildfires, tropical cyclones, fog and other storm systems and hazards that threaten the western United States, including Hawaii and Alaska, Mexico, Central America and the Pacific Ocean, all the way to New Zealand.
More information about NOAA’s GOES satellites is available at https://www.nasa.gov/content/goes.
United Launch Alliance (ULA): https://www.ulalaunch.com/
Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credit: NASA.
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