GOES-N STATUS
last update 27 September 2012
GOES-N STATUS
last update 27 September 2012
Media pictures of GOES-N preparations for launch
Web-quality draft of the GOES-N mision brochure in PDF (2 MB)
Print-quality draft of the GOES-N mission brochure in PDF (4 MB)
In the spring of 2004, the GOES-N spacecraft completed construction, underwent thermal-vac testing, and was ready to ship to the Cape for launch. Delays with Boeing's tests of heavy-Delta IV rockets delayed shipment to Cape Canaveral until March 2005.
NASA reviewed the results of the performance testing for NOAA in December 2006, and accepted the spacecraft.
Meanwhile, NOAA carried out science & operations performance testing in December and early January, as described by the reviewers at CIRA/Colorado State University.
On 5 January 2007, NOAA turned off the instruments, in preparation for on-orbit storage.
GOES-N was originally scheduled for launch in 2001, but construction and launch were extended to 2003, since the on-orbit satellites were working well. In 2003, the GOES-N was scheduled for launch in December 2004, and then January 2005.
In mid-February 2005, the GOES-N launch date was reset to May 2005, to avoid the risk of launching during the spring eclipse season.
In April 2005, there was a concern about the Delta IV rocket, and so the GOES-N launch was postponed to June while some tanks on the rocket were replaced.
In mid-June 2005, launch was slipped to late June to allow technicians time to check for possible damage to the Delta IV rocket's electrical systems from nearby lightning strikes.
In late June 2005, there were uncertainties about a battery in the rocket, so the launch was postponed to July.
In late July 2005, concerns about the satellite caused Boeing to slip-delay the launch several times to mid-August. On August 16th, launch was aborted with 4 minutes and 22 seconds to go.
Because launch slipped past mid-August, it was rescheduled for the first weekend in November 2005, to avoid the risk of deployment during the autumnal eclipse season in geosynchronous orbit.
At the end of October 2005, Boeing's union voted to strike, putting the launch of GOES-N on hold until the union voted to accept a new contract at the beginning of February 2006. However, the spring eclipse season would make launch risky before mid-April, so launch had to be scheduled for after mid-April.
To prepare for that, Boeing took the satellite off the fueled rocket, rehabbed both it and the rocket, and put them back together.
In early April 2006, the first launch opportunity for GOES-N was 18 May 2006.
By mid-May 2006, the first launch opportunity for GOES-N was 24 May 2006.
GOES-N was finally launched successfully right on the dot, at 6:11 pm EDT on 24 May 2006.
GOES-N was launched on a Delta IV with two solids to nearly direct injection to geo-orbit. The use of two powerful solid rocket boosters allows the main rocket to get to geo-orbit, which in turn saves fuel on the spacecraft, and achieves at least 10 years of fuel lifetime (nominally 5 years of on orbit storage, and 5 years of operations).
GOES-13 arrived on orbit with 15 years of geosynchronous station-keeping fuel.
The GOES-N spacecraft needs to have its folded solar panels facing outward towards the Sun during apogee-raising maneuvers around 1200 UTC on the other side of the Earth, which results in a Delta IV launch window around local sunset (2300 UTC) in Florida.
After launch, Boeing scheduled 24 days to get to geosynchronous orbit, deploy and outgas all components, power-up (but not open up) the instruments, and rename the satellite "GOES-13".
On June 13, after 20 days of preparation, Boeing turned GOES-13 over to NASA for the post-launch engineering checkout of approximately 240 days. The satellite will be checked out at 90W, during the 2006 hurricane season.
The first visible image was taken on 22 June 2006, 5 days ahead of schedule.
After checkout, NASA turned GOES-13 over to NOAA on 20 December 2006. NOAA will put GOES-13 into on-orbit storage at 105W until it is needed to replace GOES-12 at GOES-EAST or GOES-11 at GOES-WEST, circa 2010.
If GOES-N were stored on the Earth, it would have to be to be called out of deep storage to replace an on-orbit failure. There would be 9 to 12 months of preparation between call-up and launch, followed by 3 months of post-launch deployment and testing before it could become operational. On-orbit storage reduces this delay from one year to less than one week, and avoids the chance of a launch failure when you can least afford it.
***GOES-13 is scheduled to replace GOES-12 as the GOES-East operational spacecraft on April 14, 2010 at 1934 UTC*** GOES-13, launched on May 24, 2006, is the first in the series of GOES-N satellites (GOES-14 was launched on June 27, 2009 and GOES-15 was launched on March 4, 2010). This series will carry the 5 channel imager and 19 channel sounder similar to the GOES-I through M series, with some differences. GOES-13 carries the same imager and sounder payload as GOES-12, but the new spacecraft bus will allow it to operate through eclipse and most of the keep out zone periods and images will have increased navigation, registration and radiometric accuracy. (GOES-13 was used briefly as GOES-East in December 2008 during a thruster anomaly period with GOES-12). After GOES-13 becomes the operational GOES-East satellite, GOES-12 will be moved to 60W to support GOES-South America. The Eclipse and Stray Light Zone schedules have been modified to include an extra day of Partial Frame testing, as well as continued GOES-11 Full Disk scans up until April 29, 2010. These updated schedules can be found at: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/eclipse.html (Users of NOAAPORT/GINI will continue to see GOES-11 Full Disk in place of the GOES-13 Partial Frames between 0430 UTC and 0545 UTC until 4/29/10) Partial Frame definitions and updated GOES-East schedules for GOES-13 can be found at: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/GOES/THIRTEEN/sched.html The plans developed are intended to cause as few disruptions as possible to all users who need to acquire the GOES-12 GVAR signal via a ground receive antenna, while also allowing for the acquisition of GOES-13 GVAR data for 2 months prior to becoming operational to re-validate ingesting equipment and product generation.These plans are similar to the GOES-8 to GOES-12 transition plans in April 2003. An up to date synopsis: (1) On 2/23/10, The Office of Satellite Operations began the eastward drift of GOES-13 at approximately 0.5 degrees per day. Navigation elements can be found at NOAASIS ( http://noaasis.noaa.gov/NOAASIS/ ) or more specifically at: http://noaasis.noaa.gov/cemscs/navsum.txt . Daily longitudinal positions can be found at the end of this notification. (2) GOES-13 SXI was activated on 3/8/10 (3) On 4/14/10, GOES-13 will approach 81W. At 1834 UTC, GOES-13 GVAR and LRIT will be relayed through the GOES-12 downlink. Ancillary services (DCS, EMWIN, SARSAT) will remain on board GOES-12. GOES-13 will be declared GOES-East in the NOAA GOES Constellation. Users with fixed GVAR or LRIT antennae will not need to re-point to GOES-13. GOES-13 GVAR format is similar to GOES-12 (GVAR format change will occur with GOES-14 and beyond). (4) On 4/26/10, GVAR and LRIT downlinks will be switched from GOES-12 to GOES-13 when GOES-13 is at 75.5W. GOES-13 will stop drift. Ancillary services (DCS, EMWIN, SARSAT) will switch to GOES-13 at this time. Additional information about DCS transition can be found at: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/GOES/THIRTEEN/GOES-13_DCS_Notification.pdf (5) On 4/27/10, GOES-12 will begin eastward drift to 60W in order to replace GOES-10, which was de-orbited in December 2009. Imaging operations for GOES-South America will begin on or about 5/11/10. GOES-12 is expected to arrive on station at 60W on 5/17/10. Users of GOES data and products from ESPC: ESPC is ingesting GOES-13 GVAR and hosting it on McIDAS server West.nesdis.noaa.gov under the group GCR. In addition, OSDPD plans to re-validate product generation and distribution, including that of the GOES Ingest and NOAAPORT Interface (GINI). Product Area Leads will be responsible for coordinating with specific users on where they can obtain GOES-13 products. We will provide periodic updates to this transition plan as milestones are met, or any deviations from the schedule are anticipated. Updated information will be posted to: http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/ Updated Longitudinal Information for GOES-13: DAY (YMD) TIME (Z) LAT LON 100408 120000 0.17N 83.30W 100409 0 0.17S 83.11W 100409 120000 0.18N 82.85W 100410 0 0.18S 82.65W 100410 120000 0.18N 82.39W 100411 0 0.19S 82.19W 100411 120000 0.19N 81.93W 100412 0 0.19S 81.74W 100412 120000 0.20N 81.48W 100413 0 0.20S 81.28W 100413 120000 0.20N 81.02W 100414 0 0.20S 80.83W 100414 120000 0.21N 80.57W 100415 0 0.21S 80.37W ---------------------------------------- Contact Information: General Information: Brian Hughes / Thomas Renkevens Satellite Services Division, User Services NOAA/NESDIS/OSDPD 301-763-8051 x106 / x109 brian.hughes@noaa.gov thomas.renkevens@noaa.gov LRIT/EMWIN: Paul Seymour Satellite Services Division, Direct Services Branch NOAA/NESDIS/OSDPD 301-817-4521 paul.seymour@noaa.gov Data Collection System (DCS): Kay Metcalf Satellite Services Division, Direct Services Branch NOAA/NESDIS/OSDPD 301-817-4558 kay.metcalf@noaa.gov SARSAT: Lt. Shawn Maddock Satellite Services Division, Direct Services Branch NOAA/NESDIS/OSDPD 301-817-3892 shawn.maddock@noaa.gov See http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/messages.html for this and other satellite related messages. See http://www.ssd.noaa.gov for full GOES scanning schedules.
Topic:: GOES-13 Sounder Instrument Anomaly Date/Time Issued: September 24, 2012, 1740 UTC Product(s) or Data Impacted: GOES-13 Sounder Date/Time of Initial Impact: September 23, 2012 1120 UTC Date/Time of Expected End: Unknown Length of Outage: TBD Details/Specifics of Change: No Sounder products will be available due to an instrument anomaly. A return to service is unknown. The problem is being investigated. Update#1 GOES-13 Sounder instrument anomaly continues the Engineers are on site, with no return to service time available. Update#2 GOES-13 Sounder instrument anomaly status has not change, the Engineers continue to investigate. The estimated return to service for GOES-13 Sounder is still undetermined at this time. Update#3 GOES-13 Sounder instrument anomaly status has not change. The Engineers continue to investigate, still with no return to service time available. Update#4 GOES-13 Sounder instrument anomaly status has not change and the investigation continues, with no return to service time available. Update#5 Due to the GOES-13 anomaly both the Imager and Sounder are being placed into standby mode. There will be no products generated by GOES-13. The East GINI was switched to the alternate mode. This means that the East GINI is using GOES West data for processing/creating products. Update#6: GOES-15 Full Disk images will be transmitted thru the GOES-13 GVAR as of 0030 UTC. Status: Imager out of service since September 23, 2012 at 2122 UTC Sounder out of service since September 23, 2012 at 1126 UTC LRIT East out of service since September 23, 2012 at 2122 UTC The Engineers continue to investigate, no return to service time available.GOES-13 shows tremors (6 MB MOV) 23 September 2012 more....
Topic: GOES-13 Return to Operational Service as GOES-East and GOES-14 Drift Stop Maneuver Date/Time Issued: October 16, 2012 at 2038 UTC Product(s) or Data Impacted: GOES-13 and GOES-14 Imager and Sounder Data, GVAR Data Date/Time of Initial Impact: October 18, 2012 at 1444 UTC - Switch to GOES-13 initiated. Date/Time of Expected End: October 18, 2012 at 1445 UTC - Switch to GOES-13 completed. Note: GOES-14 Drift Stop Maneuver will be executed October 19, 2012 at 1356 UTC Length of Outage: See Details. Details/Specifics of Change: Tests of GOES-13 instrumentation have demonstrated the imager and sounder are ready to return to GOES-East operational service. GOES-13 Imager data are nominal and thanks to outgassing activities the noise in GOES-13 Sounder shortwave data has been reduced compared to pre-anomaly levels. The return of GOES-13 to operational service also optimizes the long term continuity of the GOES constellation. On October 18, 2012 at 1444 UTC GOES-13 data will be inserted back into the GOES-13 GVAR data stream, replacing the current GOES-14 data stream. Users do not need to repoint their antennas as the switch of GVAR data streams will be transparent. Users will notice the immediate shift of Earth coverage from the current GOES-14 drifting position to the GOES-13 position at 75 degrees West longitude. GOES-East products will be generated using GOES-13 and will receive nominal 24x7 monitoring. GINI and Remapper output will be monitored to ensure nominal GOES-East coverage of the CONUS for users of AWIPS and for users of the SATEPSDIST servers within ESPC. Products requiring a climatology of 30 days will not be generated until the requisite number of fixed satellite location days have passed: - ASDTA SMOKE (Automated Smoke Detection and Tracking Algorithm) - GASP (GOES Aerosol and Smoke Product) - GEO-SST (No NETCDF format) - GSIP-FD (GOES Surface Insolation Product-Full Disk) RSO and SRSO schedules from GOES-13 will be available to the NWS immediately after the switch is completed. A final stop maneuver of GOES-14 will occur on October 19, 2012 at 1356 UTC placing it at a position of 89.5 degrees West longitude where it will remain in standby until further notice. Contact Information for Further Information: ESPC Operations at ESPCOperations@noaa.gov at 301-817-3880. For general questions, please contact SPSD User Services at SPSD.UserServices@noaa.gov. Web Site(s) for applicable information: See http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/SATS/messages.html for this and other satellite related messages. See http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Operations/GOES/schedules.html for full GOES scanning schedules and scan sectors. See http://www.noaasis.noaa.gov/cemscs/gostbus.txt for geodetic subpoint prediction and location of GOES.