GOES-19

GOES-19 (designated GOES-U prior to reaching geostationary orbit) is a weather satellite, the fourth and last of the GOES-R series of satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The GOES-R series will extend the availability of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) system until 2036. The satellite is built by Lockheed Martin, based on the A2100 platform.^[4][5]

GOES-19

Artistic rendering of GOES-U once deployed
Names	Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U
Mission type	Earth weather forecasting
Operator	NOAA / NASA
COSPAR ID	2024-119A
SATCAT no.	60133
Mission duration	15 years (planned) 214 days, 19 hours, 51 minutes (in progress)
Spacecraft properties
Bus	A2100
Manufacturer	Lockheed Martin
Launch mass	5,000 kg (11,023 lb)
Dry mass	2,925 kg (6,449 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date	25 June 2024, 21:26 (2024-06-25UTC21:26Z) UTC[1] (5:26 pm EDT)
Rocket	Falcon Heavy
Launch site	Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A
Contractor	SpaceX
Entered service	Spring 2025 (planned)
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Geostationary orbit
Longitude	75.2° west (planned)[2]
Semi-major axis	41,845 km (26,001 mi)[3]
Eccentricity	0.0045031[3]
Perigee altitude	35,286.4 km (21,926.0 mi)[3]
Apogee altitude	35,663.3 km (22,160.1 mi)[3]
Inclination	0.1204°[1]
Period	24 hours[3]
Epoch	July 12, 2024
GOES-U mission insignia GOES Series ← GOES-18

Launch

The satellite was successfully launched into space atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on 25 June 2024 at 21:26 UTC (5:26 pm EDT local time at the launch site),^[1] from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States. Using Falcon Heavy saves propellant on the spacecraft, allowing longer life. The redesign of the loop heat pipe to prevent an anomaly, as seen in GOES-17, is not expected to delay the launch as it did with GOES-T.^[6]

GOES-U also carries a copy of the Naval Research Laboratory's Compact CORonagraph (CCOR) instrument which, along with the CCOR planned for Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1), will allow continued monitoring of solar wind after the retirement of the NASA-ESA SOHO satellite in 2025.^[7][8]

GOES-U has a dry mass of 2,925 kg (6,449 lb) and a fueled mass of 5,000 kg (11,023 lb).^[9]

References

• Spaceflight portal

1. Garofalo, Meredith (25 June 2024). "Powerful GOES-U weather satellite launches to orbit atop SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket". space.com.
2. "NOAA's GOES-U Reaches Geostationary Orbit, Now Designated GOES-19". NESDIS. NOAA. 8 July 2024. Retrieved 14 July 2024. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
3. n2yo.com. "GOES-19 (GOES-U)". Retrieved 14 July 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
4. "GOES-R, S, T, U Spacecraft Overview". Spaceflight101. Archived from the original on 5 June 2024. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
5. Andrews, Hillary (27 March 2024). "GOES-U weather satellite to launch June 25 after leak causes delay". FOX Weather. Retrieved 8 April 2024.
6. Werner, Debra (9 January 2019). "Lockheed Martin halts work on GOES-T to wait for instrument fix". SpaceNews. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
7. Vargas, Marco (7 January 2019). "The NOAA Space Weather Follow-On Program to Ensure Continuity of CME Imagery and Solar Wind Space-Based Observations". American Meteorilogical Society 99th Annual Meeting. AMS. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
8. "Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1". NESDIS. NOAA. Retrieved 24 March 2020. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
9. "GOES-R Series Spacecraft Overview". GOES-R Series. Retrieved 17 January 2024.