Nichols Martin
NASA and United Launch Alliance have launched the third satellite of a constellation designed to gather weather data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The GOES-T unit, part of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite series, lifted off on Tuesday aboard ULA’s Atlas V rocket from the Florida-based Canaveral Space Force Station, NASA said Wednesday.
The satellite was using its own power source and had its solar arrays deployed as of 8:28 pm EST on Tuesday, as confirmed by GOES-T mission managers.
GOES-T will provide data on weather and environmental matters in the western hemisphere, and provide forecasts on space weather occurrences with the potential to disrupt radio communications, GPS and satellite electronics.
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said GOES-T’s observation data will play a key part in NASA’s climate, weather and space weather research, which supports NOAA’s forecasts.
