Resources to educate students, teachers, and the general public about meteorology, space science, earth-observing satellites, weather phenomena and benefits GOES-R will provide to society.
Information and resources to ensure that the user community is prepared for the new types of satellite imagery and data that will be available from the GOES-R satellite series.
The GOES-R spacecraft bus will be 3-axis stabilized and designed for 10 years of on-orbit operation preceded by up to 5 years of on-orbit storage. The satellite will be able to operate through periodic station-keeping and momentum adjust maneuvers, which will allow for near-continuous instrument observations. Other notable performance elements include: vibration isolation for the Earth-pointed optical bench and high-speed spacecraft-to-instrument interfaces designed to maximize science data collection. The cumulative time that GOES-R science data collection (including imaging) will be interrupted due to all momentum management, station-keeping, and yaw flip maneuvers will be under 120 minutes/year. This is a nearly two orders of magnitude improvement compared to the current GOES satellites. The spacecraft will carry three classifications of instruments: nadir-pointing, solar-pointing, and in-situ.
The satellite driving requirements are:
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Spacecraft on-orbit life of 15 years with orbit East-West and North-South position maintained to within +/-0.1 degree
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Collect and transmit up to 100Mbps Instrument Payload data from each location continuously
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Continuous Rebroadcast function at L-Band up to 31 Mbps utilizing dual polarization
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Provide continuing services [Search and Rescue, Data System Collection, Emergency Manager’s Weather Information Network (EMWIN)]
Spacecraft Specifications
Size
~5.5 meters (from launch vehicle interface to top of ABI)
Mass
Satellite (spacecraft and payloads) dry mass <2800kg
Power
Capacity
>4000W at end-of-life (includes accounting for limited array degradation)
Spacecraft Status
The Spacecraft System Definition Review (SDR) was held in March 2010, the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) was completed in January 2011, and the Spacecraft successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) in April 2012.
Prime Contractor
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Corporation began contract work on the spacecraft in July 2009. The scheduled start of integration and testing with the instruments is set for 2013. A derivative of the Lockheed Martin A2100 bus will be used for the GOES-R series.
