GOES-R Spacecraft Overview

The GOES-R series spacecraft bus will be three-axis stabilized and designed for 10 years of on-orbit operation preceded by up to five 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 series 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:

• Spacecraft on-orbit life of 15 years with orbit East-West and North-South position maintained to within +/-0.1 degree
• Collect and transmit up to 100Mbps instrument payload data from each location continuously
• Continuous rebroadcast function at L-Band up to 31 Mbps utilizing dual polarization
• Provide continuing services [Search and Rescue, Data System Collection, Emergency Manager’s Weather Information Network (EMWIN)]

Spacecraft Specifications:

• 6.1 m x 5.6 m x 3.9 m (20.0 ft x 18.4 ft x 12.8 ft)
• 2,857 kg (6,299 lbs) dry mass
• 5,192 kg (11,446 lbs) at launch (fueled)