Sep 24 1984
From The Space Library
At the request of Switzerland and the Federal Republic of Germany, ESA reactivated the GOES-2 spacecraft. The two countries wanted use of the satellite to obtain data over a complete 11-year solar cycle and to support the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Experiment (AMPTE) project. GOES-2, launched in June 1978, completed its planned scientific mission in July 1980. It resumed operations in 1981, continuing these until the end of 1983. In January 1984, GOES-2 was moved from the densely occupied geostationary orbit into a higher and slightly asynchronous orbit, where it was drifting at a rate of about 3.5° in longitude per day and becoming visible to the European Space Operations Center station at Michelstadt, Germany, for 4 weeks every 31/2 months. (ESA Release, Sept 24/84)
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