NOAA -- GOES-O satellite to launch April 28

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), called GOES-O, arrived this morning by a C17 military cargo aircraft at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility from the manufacturing plant in El Segundo, Calif.

The GOES-O satellite is targeted to launch April 28 onboard a United Launch Alliance expendable launch vehicle Delta IV. Once in orbit GOES-O will be designated GOES-14 and NASA will provide on-orbit checkout and then transfer operational responsibility to NOAA. GOES-O will be placed in on-orbit storage as a replacement for an older GOES satellite.

After arriving, the satellite was transported to Astrotech in Titusville, Fla., where final testing of the imaging system, instrumentation, communications and power systems will be performed. These tests will take approximately six weeks to complete. Then the spacecraft will be fueled with propellant for the attitude control system, encapsulated in the nose fairing and prepared for transport to the launch pad.

GOES-O is the second spacecraft to be launched in the GOES N-P series of geostationary environmental weather satellites. The GOES satellites continuously provide observations of 60% of the Earth including the continental United States, providing weather monitoring and forecast operations as well as a continuous and reliable stream of environmental information and severe weather warnings.

View Real-time images from GOES satellites.