CONTACT: Patricia Viets, NOAA/NESDIS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301) 457-5005 10/31/95
Ernie Shannon, NASA/Goddard
(301) 286-6256
The country's latest advanced geostationary weather satellite reached a milestone today, when the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration assumed control of the satellite from NASA.
Since its launch on May 23, the satellite has successfully undergone rigorous post-launch testing by NASA. During the next month, NOAA will conduct science tests before moving the satellite. In early December, GOES-9 will start its journey to 135 degrees West longitude and will arrive there in mid-January. GOES-9, replacing GOES-7, will join GOES-8 in providing meteorologists with information vital to timely and accurate weather forecasts.
"This is a major milestone in the geostationary satellite program in the United States," said Gerry Dittberner, NOAA's GOES program manager. "This is the first time we will have two advanced environmental satellites overlooking our coasts and simultaneously probing the atmosphere while providing high-quality imagery."
GOES-8 and GOES-9 represent a major element of NOAA's National Weather Service's modernization program. The data gathered by the GOES satellites, combined with data from the new Doppler radars and the automated surface observing system, will greatly aid forecasters in providing better advance warnings of thunderstorms, flash floods, hurricanes, winter storms and other severe weather -- which will save lives, preserve property, and benefit agriculture, marine, aviation and commercial interests across the country.
GOES-8, the first state-of-the-art geostationary environmental satellite, was launched April 13, 1994. It is currently positioned at 75 degrees West longitude, overlooking the East Coast of North and South America and well into the Atlantic Ocean. GOES-7, now more than eight years old, is overlooking the West Coast and well into the Pacific Ocean and Alaska. Once GOES-9 is fully operational, GOES-7 will be placed in standby mode.
GOES-8 and GOES-9 are also equipped with instruments designed to provide real-time measurements of solar activity, the charged particle environment, and the Earth's magnetic field at synchronous orbit. In addition, the satellites can relay distress signals from people, aircraft, or ships to search and rescue ground stations of the Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking system.
NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service in Suitland, Md., operates the GOES series of satellites.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the design, development, testing, launch and post-launch check out of the spacecraft for NOAA.