Preparing GOES-T for Encapsulation February 4, 2022. At Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville, Florida, technicians are now moving NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T). The spacecraft is being prepared for encapsulation inside its protective payload fairings. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett GOES-T is scheduled to launch on March 1, 2022, atop a United Launch Alliance […]
NOAA’s GOES-T ‘Starting to Come Together’ GOES-T LAUNCH COUNTDOWN An activity completed at Astrotech’s Space Operations facility in Titusville today brings NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite T (GOES-T) mission one significant step closer to its March 1, 2022, liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in just over a month. On Jan. 27, 2022, the […]
Rocket Stacking underway for GOES-T United Launch Alliance, has started stacking the Atlas 5 that will launch GOES-T. The spacecraft, encapsulated within its five-meter payload fairing, is scheduled to be installed on the rocket Feb. 15 for final tests before rollout and launch. The four GEM 63 solid rocket boosters and the Centaur upper stage […]
GOES-West Transition Plan – Swap of GOES-17/18 GOES-17 ABI has been operating with a Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) Anomaly for its entire lifetime which results in degraded imagery during four warm periods of each year. Recent anomalies have caused further challenges in regulating the ABI Focal Plane Module (FPM) temperatures, resulting in additional warming and […]
After a truck and Super Galaxy plane ride from Colorado to Florida on November 9th, the GOES T Shipping container was opened for inspection at the Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Florida. The newest weather satellite was removed and orientated vertically and set up on the stand for more tests, inspections, and later fueling and […]
Updated 11/11/2021Shipping a satellite is no small feat. GOES-T is the size of a small school bus and weighs over 6,000 pounds! The spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado, where GOES-T was built, carefully packed the satellite in a special shipping container that protected its sensitive instruments and functioned as a miniature cleanroom […]
Updated 11-18-2021 NOAA and NASA are now targeting March 1, 2022, as the new launch date for NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite T (GOES-T) mission. The launch was recently scheduled for February 16, 2022. However, shifts in launch dates for missions scheduled ahead of GOES-T prompted NASA, NOAA, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) to coordinate […]