NOAA says that redundancy measures are already in place

Sep 26, 2012 12:00 GMT  ·  By

Officials with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announce that one of the most important weather satellites covering the eastern seaboard of the United States has failed.

After behaving erratically for days, and sending back scrambled data, the spacecraft was finally shut down, representatives from the agency say. The satellite was known as GOES-N before launch, but it became GOES 13 when it reached orbit.

The acronym stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. GOES 13 was part of a larger network of spacecraft NOAA operates in Earth's orbit, which help the organization produce accurate and reliable weather forecasts.

Until last week, the orbital asset was the main satellite used to monitor weather and climate on the East Coast. Already, NOAA activated another satellite to pick up where GOES-13 left off, ensuring data continuity for the mission.

The satellite blasted off into space on May 24, 2006, for what was originally supposed to be a 10-year mission. It was delivered to its intended coordinates by a Delta IV-M delivery system, which launched from Space Launch Complex 37B, at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), in Florida.

All satellites in the GOES constellation are injected into geostationary orbits, at altitudes of around 35,888 kilometers (22,300 miles). The first spacecraft in the series was launched back in 1974.

The failed spacecraft has already been replaced by the GOES-14 satellite, which was launched in orbit back in 2009, as a space to be used in case of emergency. The latter has already begun imaging the US and sectors of the Atlantic Ocean, Space reports.

“GOES-14 will remain the primary GOES satellite over the Atlantic basin and Continental U.S. until the imager and sounder data issues on GOES-13 can be fully diagnosed and hopefully fixed,” experts at NOAA said in a statement released on September 24.

“NOAA maintains backup GOES satellites in case unforeseen events occur, providing full redundancy for monitoring severe weather over the U.S. and its territories,” they went on to explain.

The active members of the GOES constellation are now GOES 12, 14 and 15. The GOES 3 spacecraft is currently providing critical data transmission between the United States and the Scott-Amundsen South Pole Station.