Jun 27 2009
From The Space Library
NASA launched the latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) weather satellite, GOES O, from Space Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, at 6:51 p.m. (EDT), aboard a Delta-4 rocket. The craft’s schedule would place GOES O in its final orbit on 7 July 2009, at which time NASA would rename it GOES 14. Twenty-four hours after launch, Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems would hand engineering control over to NASA; five months later, NASA would transfer operational control of GOES 14 to NOAA. NOAA would perform check-out operations of the craft, store it in orbit, and make it available for activation when one of two operational GOES satellites degraded or exhausted its fuel. GOES O was the second of three of the newest generation of GOES satellites launched. In addition to providing continuous weather monitoring for 60 percent of the planet, these GOES satellites monitored solar flares and tracked climate change.
NASA, “NASA and NOAA’s GOES-O Satellite Successfully Launched,” news release 09-148, 27 June 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/jun/HQ_09148_GOES_O_Launch.html (accessed 22 July 2011); Marcia Dunn, “Sophisticated Weather Satellite Rockets into Orbit,” Associated Press, 29 June 2009; Todd Halvorson, “Rocket Launches Weather Satellite,” Florida Today (Brevard, FL), 29 June 2009.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
