Space @ a glance
LIBRARY AND DOCUMENTATION DIVISION
Advanced new GOES-T weather satellite is 'go' for launch on March 1
space.com – 28 Feb, 2022
The GOES-T satellite is seen before being encapsulated in
its payload fairing Astrotech Space Operations facility in
Titusville, Florida so it can be installed atop a United
Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket ahead of a scheduled March
1, 2022 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force
Station. (Image credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky
The next advanced weather satellite for the
United States is officially ready to launch into
orbit this week on an Atlas V rocket. NASA and
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) cleared the new GOES-
T weather satellite for a planned March 1
launch, the two agencies announced Saturday
(Feb. 26). Liftoff is set for 4:38 p.m. EST (2138
GMT) from Space Launch Complex 41 at
the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in
Florida, with the United Launch Alliance
conducting the flight. "The spacecraft, the Atlas
V rocket and range equipment are all ready,
and the combined government and contractor
launch team is prepared to add GOES-T to the
family and continue this amazing legacy of
these weather sentinels," NASA launch director
Tim Dunn said in a prelaunch press conference
Saturday. GOES is short for Geostationary
Space @ aglance Library&DocumentationDivision,LPSC
February 28, 2022
Operational Environmental Satellite in NASA
parlance.
Built by Lockheed Martin, GOES-T (which will
be renamed GOES-18 once in orbit) is the third
of four advanced weather satellites designed
to serve U.S. meteorological forecast needs
through 2036. They are part of NOAA's $11.7
billion GOES-R satellite series program, which
launched the GOES-16 weather satellite in
2016 followed by GOES-17 in 2018. A fourth
satellite, GOES-U, will follow GOES-T to orbit in
2024. "The GOES series has revolutionized
severe event monitoring for us with regard to
storms and other environmental hazards, such
as wildfires, which are always a threat to our
western states," said Steve Volz, NOAA's
assistant administrator for satellite and
information services, in the conference. The
first GOES satellite, GOES 1, launched in 1975,
with NASA and NOAA working together on the
program.
GOES-T will join its fellow GOES satellites in
a geostationary orbit 22,300 miles (just over
35,800 kilometers) above Earth that will allow
it to observe weather across the entire
Western Hemisphere. The satellite's primary
instrument is its Advanced Baseline Imager, a
camera for tracking Earth's weather, oceans
and environment. It can scan the Earth five
times faster and with four times the resolution
of its predecessors, NOAA officials wrote in an
overview. The new satellite also carries a first-
Page | 1
 Space @ a glance
LIBRARY AND DOCUMENTATION DIVISION February 28, 2022

of-its-kind Geostationary Lightning Mapper

instrument to detect severe thunderstorms
earlier "before they produce damaging winds,
hail or even tornadoes," NOAA officials wrote.
GOES-T also carries four different instruments
to monitor space weather. A solar ultraviolet
imager will snap images of the sun while an
U.V. and X-ray sensor will detect solar flares. A
magnetometer and instrument suite to track
energetic particles and changes in Earth's
magnetic field from space weather events. "A
big part of the GOES-R [series] mission is
actually doing solar observations," said Pam
Sullivan, NOAA's GOES-R program director.
Before GOES-T can begin its weather-watching
mission, it does have to reach space. To do
that, it will need good weather.

Current forecasts predict a 60% chance of good

weather at launch time on Tuesday, with
conditions improving to 70% on Wednesday if
NASA and NOAA have to delay for a day, said
launch weather officer Jessica Williams of the
45th Weather Squadron at Space Launch Delta
in the briefing. If GOES-T is delayed until
Thursday (March 3), the mission would come
up against another launch by SpaceX to loft a
batch of new Starlink internet satellites from
Pad 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Center near
the GOES-T launch site. That mission is
scheduled to launch at 9:32 a.m. EST (1432
GMT). Dunn, NASA's launch director, said the
SpaceX flight will take priority for the morning
launch on March 3, but that ULA could still
support an afternoon liftoff for GOES-T that
same day if needed.

Space @ aglance Library&DocumentationDivision,LPSC Page | 2