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Image above: A Delta IV launch vehicle lifts off carrying GOES-P into orbit. Image credit: NASA/Kenny Allen
GREENBELT, Md. — Twelve days after a flawless launch, NASA and NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P (GOES-P) reached its proper orbit and was renamed GOES-15. The latest weather satellite will complete its checkout in mid August 2010 and be stored in-orbit, ready for activation should one of the operational GOES satellites degrade or exhaust their fuel.
“The NASA team has done an excellent job and the spacecraft performance has been near perfect. Reaching the proper orbit marks a significant milestone, but we still have a lot of work to complete,” stated Andre Dress, the NASA GOES Deputy Project Manager. “We remain focused on the tasks at hand and look forward to complete mission success.”
Since GOES-P launched on-board a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket on March 4, the satellite has undergone 5 orbit raising maneuvers before arriving at its checkout longitude of 90° West, where it orbits at approximately 22 thousand miles above the Earth’s surface.
NASA Engineers and controllers deployed the Solar Array on March 17 and they will turn on the Imager and Sounder on March 23. The Imager is expected to capture the first visible image on April 5.
GOES-15 is the third and final spacecraft to be launched in the GOES N-P Series of geostationary environmental weather satellites. With two operational satellites, they provide weather observations that cover over 50 percent of the Earth’s surface.
Boeing Satellite and Intelligence Systems operations will transition the routine health and safety monitoring to the NASA Goddard operations team on March 24. At this time the NASA and NOAA team will commence with the post launch verification testing, which will last for approximately 150 days. Once all the systems are checked out, the satellite will be turned over to NOAA for operational control.
Related Links:
For more information about the GOES-P mission and program on the Web, visit:
> http://goespoes.gsfc.nasa.gov
Goddard Release No. 10-029
Its continuosly updated (every 2min) output can be seen here:
http://planet.colorado.edu/quicklook/routine_plots.html
Ahhh. More data to homogenize. Wonder how long it will be before we see the AP headline: “New Satellite Shows Unprecedented Climate Change”
Sadly, after “correction” factors are added, it will be the SOS.
2 Warmist groups, NASA and NOAA combine to form a new GOES satelite. I can only wonder what the end product will be.
I just stumbled across this link.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2007/12/18/update-goes12-is-back-online/
Wow…. ONE COMMENT!
Was that you, did you realise what you had stumbled upon. I have only been addicted for 9 months or so. I’m booked into the anti-watts rehab clinic to try and get my free time back, not sure if I have time to attend.
Keep going Anthony. Love it.
looks like we can expect another step change in the temperature records in the next couple of years from the new and improved equipment.
One mistake in the AR4 or several mistakes?
IPCC/TERI Chair Pachauri can’t get his media story straight.
“New Satellite Shows Unprecedented Climate Change”
– indeed, kinda sad the satellite made it there, isn’t it
I’m just glad the Orbiting Carbon Observatory OCO bit the dust 41 second after launching.
Can you imagine the headlines from that thing sending back data (which they needed to model the appearance and fate of, anyway)
LARGE DEATH CLOUD SPOTTED OVER KANSAS
US CONTINENT SATURATED WITH MORE CO2 THAN PREVIOUSLY BELIEVED
OCEANS NOT SEEN TO ABSORB ANY MORE CARBON DIOXIDE
I’ve always wanted to attend a GOES launch so that when it blasts off I could point to it and say “Look everyone, there goes GOES!”
I’m sure it would be the highlight of my week.
Granted, everybody makes mistakes.
NASA scientists have my full support.
Take a look at this:
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/
You won’t be sorry.
YAY! I worked on several of the GOES projects. I can’t wait to see this bird inaction 🙂
OT – But am I losing my mind!!!
On Al Gore’s blog:
“Last Monday, women whose lives had been impacted by the climate crisis came to Capitol Hill to tell their powerful stories. For example, Marisa Marcavillaca of Peru told members of Congress:
“Nature is disrupted. It rains when it shouldn’t rain.” Marisa Marcavillaca of Peru said through a translator. “We have freezing temperatures when we shouldn’t have freezing temperatures. Because our yields are down, it is difficult to feed our children.”
“Warmer temperatures in her farming area have spurred plant diseases, and the quality of agricultural seeds has degenerated, cutting into local women’s ability to earn a living, she said.”
All over the world, people are feeling the impact of the climate crisis.”
WHAT!!!!
http://blog.algore.com/2010/03/witnesses_to_the_climate_crisi.html
HEADS I WIN, TAILS YOU (SCEPTICS) LOSE.
Desertyote:
I agree with the anti-nit-pickers, but I can’t resist pointing out that the missing space neatly reverses what you clearly mean. : > ]
I don’t want it warm
I don’t want it cold
I don’t want it dry
I don’t want it rainy
I don’t want it sunny
I don’t want it cloudy …
Good Gravy – Al Gore is worse than a two bit Bible thumper dragging the feeble before crowds to give “testimonials” on the need to be “saved”
Why bother launching the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite when they already know the observations that will show warming, much worse that we thought. I’m sick of this sh&^%
And they want to correct us over decimal places in global mean temperatures. Gavin from RC works there.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/686674.stm
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/launches/orbiter_errorupd_093099.htm
“The testing error that led to Hubble mirror fiasco”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12717301.000-the-testing-error-that-led-to-hubble-mirror-fiasco-.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/638187.stm
This is one of the reasons I am a sceptic. Even the mightiest can make elementary mistakes just like me.
should add
“Even the mightiest can make elementary mistakes just like me. [and I’m not even mighty].”
Sorry moderators for posting another comment but in all fairness I should add:
Congratulations to the old NASA for sending men to the Moon; however, like the new BBC, NASA seems to have lost its way over AGW. I used to work at the BBC and it has turned into a climate propoganda machine. Sad!
It’s worse than we thought!
juanslayton (19:35:07) :
I noticed that after I posted. I guess I was thinking more about getting Thai food then spelling 🙂
BTW, I sometimes worry that the quality of engineering is not what it once was. The days of space missions lasting 20 years more then their planned lifetime, are over. The same disease that affect climate science effects everything. I have worked with so many young grads that have had their heads filled with all sorts of nonsense.
Come on people, it is just a useful tool. It is the management people on the ground that are the ones that are misusing the data that is produced. At least the engineering side of NASA still works well.
Congrats Desert Yote!
It must be nice to have contributed to such an accomplishment, and be able to point to the bird you helped fly.
PG,
I gotta agree – more data is a good thing. Misuse of said data is a completely different ball of wax
Secret Mini Space Shuttle could launch April 19!
Wattsupwiththat?
http://www.universetoday.com/2010/03/18/secret-mini-space-shuttle-could-launch-april-19/
“Esa’s Cryosat ice mission given launch date”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8568285.stm
“The satellite is designed to make detailed measurements of the shape and thickness of Arctic and Antarctic ice.
Its data will help scientists to assess better how changing polar ice conditions affect ocean circulation patterns, sea level and global climate.”
Wonder what this one will find
Off Topic, I know, but the Google Ad towards the top of the WUWT screen usually features “Rajendra Pachauri at the London Speaker Centre”, at least here in England.
Maybe we can use some of the “vast secret funding behind the Denialisti offensive” to book him, and throw rotten eggs at him.
Ref – Brian G Valentine (18:23:09) :
“New Satellite Shows Unprecedented Climate Change”
_______________________
At least the Global Warming Phase is over for a while. Sure seems like the climate is changing mighty fast. Kinda reminds me of that old fashioned term we used years ago. Wait.. I’ll remember.. got it, “Weather”. Yep! The “Weather” used to change every day, sometimes more often than that.
Isn’t Fat Albert smart?
If’in ya can’t get some global warming to get folks to support ya and yer friends, call it ‘climate change’, and make it somethin new and different every day. What a fella! What’a a snake oil saleman! Never been a better one! Why old Madoff stole only a little ol’ $50 Billion, Fat Albert’s the Prince Of Ponzi! Jus change the name, gotta remember that trick!
Ref – Jimbo (19:25:49) :
“OT – But am I losing my mind!!!…”
_______________________
Nope!
Ref – Brian G Valentine (19:43:16) :
“..Good Gravy – Al Gore is worse than a two bit Bible thumper dragging the feeble before crowds to give “testimonials” on the need to be “saved”.”
_______________________
He sure is a smart one, ain’t he? (Well a heck of a lot smarter than the fools in the audience.) He really does deserve that Nobel Prize, best dog-gone Rip-Off Artist there ever was!
Ref – p.g.sharrow “PG” (21:51:54) :
“Come on people, it is just a useful tool. It is the management people on the ground that are the ones that are misusing the data that is produced. At least the engineering side of NASA still works well.”
________________________
Let’s hope and pray!
That’s better than their last try. That satellite is studying the Antarctic sea floor.
O/T:
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/2010/03/the_2010_fissure_eruption_at_e.php#comments
“”The big news this morning is the eruption that started last night at Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland, producing a 1-km fissure vent. The pictures and videos I’ve seen so far have been quite impressive, with the classic look of a “curtain of fire”, where basaltic lava erupts explosively from a linear array of vents – you can see the geometry in the image from the BBC/AP (above). Especially clear is the dual nature of the eruption, with both the explosive fire fountains and the effusive (passive) lava flows from the root of the curtain of fire. In many “curtain of fire” eruptions on Hawai`i, the curtain (see below) eventually coalesces into a single fire fountain, sometimes producing fountains that can reach a few kilometers in height. This will be something to watch for in the coming days if the eruption continues…”” (Dr. Erik Klemetti)
Jimbo (19:55:42) :
Sorry moderators for posting another comment but in all fairness I should add:
Congratulations to the old NASA for sending men to the Moon; however, like the new BBC, NASA seems to have lost its way over AGW. I used to work at the BBC and it has turned into a climate propoganda machine. Sad!
———-
Have you forgotten the Apollo 1 tragedy ?
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo1info.html
Three men killed in a fire in the Apollo Command Module.
How about the Apollo 13 disaster ?
http://www.space.com/news/spacehistory/apollo13_focus_failure_000413.html
Nobody cares that Michael Jordan missed a few free throws.
It is the successes that make history.
Old NASA, new NASA. They don’t care if some people think the Moon landing was a hoax, or think Global Warming is a hoax, or think aliens are running the Agency.
They just do their jobs, professionally. Some mistakes are made, but they move on.
M White (05:35:41) :
“Esa’s Cryosat ice mission given launch date”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8568285.stm
“The satellite is designed to make detailed measurements of the shape and thickness of Arctic and Antarctic ice.
Its data will help scientists to assess better how changing polar ice conditions affect ocean circulation patterns, sea level and global climate.”
Wonder what this one will find
——————–
Probably data similar to what the American satellite ICESat found during its 7 year mission, before it died last October:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1002/25icesat/
The follow on satellite ICESat2 is not scheduled for launch until 2015.
Here’s what ICESat found:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090708103212.htm
Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thin seasonal ice replacing thick older ice as the dominant type for the first time on record. The new results, based on data from a NASA Earth-orbiting spacecraft, provide further evidence for the rapid, ongoing transformation of the Arctic’s ice cover.
…But not all of the Arctic ice melts each summer; the thicker, older ice is more likely to survive. Seasonal sea ice usually reaches about 2 meters (6 feet) in thickness, while multi-year ice averages 3 meters (9 feet).
Using ICESat measurements, scientists found that overall Arctic sea ice thinned about 0.17 meters (7 inches) a year, for a total of 0.68 meters (2.2 feet) over four winters. The total area covered by the thicker, older “multi-year” ice that has survived one or more summers shrank by 42 percent.
Previously, scientists relied only on measurements of area to determine how much of the Arctic Ocean is covered in ice, but ICESat makes it possible to monitor ice thickness and volume changes over the entire Arctic Ocean for the first time.
During the study period, the relative contributions of the two ice types to the total volume of the Arctic’s ice cover were reversed. In 2003, 62 percent of the Arctic’s total ice volume was stored in multi-year ice, with 38 percent stored in first-year seasonal ice. By 2008, 68 percent of the total ice volume was first-year ice, with 32 percent multi-year ice.