Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite GOES-O was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on June 27 and reached its geostationary orbit location at 89.5 degrees west longitude last week. Upon reaching orbit, GOES-O became GOES-14. The solar array was successfully deployed on July 9 at 4:55 p.m.
GOES-14 is the second in the GOES-N series. Some of its new top-level capabilities include a digital low rate information transmission-formatted weather facsimile service (WEFAX), expanding measurements for the Space Environment Monitor (SEM) instruments, a new dedicated channel for the Emergency Managers Weather Information Network service and a more stable platform for supporting improved imager, sounder, and SXI instruments.
The SEM should come in useful as we enter a new sunspot cycle. It consists of three instrument groups: an energetic particle sensor package; two magnetometer sensors; and a solar x-ray sensor. The sensors provide real-time data to the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo. A special five-channel telescope measures solar extreme ultraviolet energy in five wavelength bands from 10 nm to 126 nm. This provides a direct measure of the solar energy that heats Earth's upper atmosphere and creates the ionosphere.
Boeing will hand over engineering control of GOES-14 to NASA on July 17, 2009. While it will take NASA approximately five months to complete the in-orbit checkout, the first visible image from the ITT-built sensor is planned for July 27. 2009. Once NASA has checked out the GOES-14, it will be transferred to NOAA and stored in orbit as a spare and available for activation should one of the operational GOES satellites degrade or run out of fuel.
