14 DAY TRIAL // Experts at the Boeing Company announced yesterday, September 1, that control of the GOES-15 satellite has been delivered to NOAA and NASA, after the spacecraft completed the in-orbit verifications stage of its mission.
It will be operated by a collaboration of experts at the American space agency and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This is the company's eighth Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), and it was launched on March 4, 2010, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), in California.
“GOES-15 completes the fleet of advanced meteorological satellites that Boeing designed, built and launched to provide enhanced weather monitoring over North America and refresh NOAA's operational fleet,” explains Craig Cooning.
“The United States will have state-of-the-art satellite images on nightly weather telecasts, better weather monitoring and prediction, and more accurate data for climate studies because of these new GOES satellites,” adds the official.
“We thank our NASA and NOAA customers for the nearly 13 successful years of cooperative development that has enabled us to deliver the full GOES fleet,” says Cooning, who is the Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems vice president and general manager.
For the past five months, the satellites has been undergoing various types of in-orbit testing and flight assessments, so that experts at Boeing could realize whether the spacecraft met its in-flight specifications or not.
The infrared imager instrument, and the solar X-ray imager instrument, have already been tried out and proven, and the satellites has already began relaying back the first photos of the Earth and Sun.
“Clearly, this is a great day for NASA, NOAA and all of our team members. We take great pride in knowing that all the years of hard work, late hours and diligence have paid off,” says Andre Dress.
“Boeing, Lockheed Martin, ITT and United Launch Alliance have really shone on this mission, and it shows in the final product,” adds the official, who is based at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“GOES-15 will be a great addition to the constellation, and we look forward to seeing it in operation,” says Dress, who is also the deputy project manager for the GOES mission.
NASA and NOAA have thus far operated weight high-resolution satellites in this constellation. The first one was called GOES-D, and it was launched some 30 years ago, in 1980.