Lockheed Commences Environmental Tests on GOES-R Weather Satellite; Tim Gasparrini Comments

Lockheed Martin has begun the environmental testing phase for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R series following completion of assembly work on the spacecraft.

The environmental testing aims to assess the capability of GOES-R to withstand launch and extreme environmental conditions in space, the company said Wednesday.

Lockheed said it will also subject the satellite to electromagnetic interference, reverberant acoustic, compatibility, vibration and deployment shock testing after completing the environmental assessment.

Tim Gasparrini, vice president and GOES-R Series program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said the GOES-R satellite would be “vital to our severe storm prediction and warnings.”

Scheduled for launch in March 2016, the satellite has Lockheed-built Geostationary Lightning Mapper and Solar Ultraviolet Imager.