May 24 2006
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After months of delays due to various technical difficulties, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite–N (GOES-N) launched successfully aboard a Boeing Delta-4 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 6:11 p.m. (EDT). GOES-N, which would be renamed GOES- 13 after completing its destination orbit, was the latest in a series of Earth-monitoring satellites that provided the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. GOES satellites circled the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit—they orbited the equatorial plane of the Earth at a speed equal to the Earth’s rotation—allowing GOES satellites to hover continuously over one position on the Earth’s surface and to appear stationary. GOES satellites remained constantly vigilant for atmospheric triggers of severe weather conditions, such as tornadoes, flash floods, hailstorms, and hurricanes. GOES-N would carry enhanced imaging and sounding instruments, enabling meteorologists to pinpoint the location of severe weather within 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles), as well as a solar imager designed to detect and precisely to locate solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) soon after their occurrence. After reaching its geosynchronous orbit of 22,300 miles (35,888 kilometers), GOES-N would enter on-orbit storage mode, so that it could rapidly replace any existing GOES satellite, in case of failure.
Stephen Clark, “Weather Observatory for Americas Ascends to Space,” Spaceflight Now, 25 May 2006; Von Puttkamer, “Space Flight 2006”; Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 631.
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