WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off June 25 carrying the latest spacecraft in a series of geostationary weather satellites that also contains several firsts.
The Falcon Heavy lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 5:26 p.m. Eastern, 10 minutes into a two-hour window, as launch directors found favorable weather despite forecasts a day earlier that called for only a 30% chance of acceptable weather.
The rocket’s payload, the GOES-U weather satellite, is scheduled to deploy from Falcon Heavy’s second stage four and a half hours after liftoff, after the stage completes a sequence of three burns to place the satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit.
GOES-U is the fourth and final satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) R series of satellites built by Lockheed Martin for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The spacecraft, which will be renamed GOES-19 once in geostationary orbit, will undergo in-orbit commissioning and then move 75 degrees east to GEO and take over from GOES-16 as operational GOES-East satellite.
The satellite carries a suite of earth and space science instruments similar to the three previous GOES-R satellites, but also includes the Compact Coronagraph (CCOR) instrument for observing the sun. CCOR will monitor the solar corona for flares and coronal mass ejections that affect space weather, taking over the nearly 30-year-old Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft.
Meteorologists say the observations provided by the first three GOES-R weather satellites have significantly improved weather forecasting. “The GOES-R series of satellites has been a game changer for us,” said Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service, at a June 24 pre-launch briefing. “Since the series was first launched in 2016, the latest GOES series has enabled new and improved forecasts, warnings and services to help save lives and protect property.”
Among the new capabilities in the GOES-R series is a lightning map. “For forecasters, I think it took a while to figure out what it could do,” Pam Sullivan, director of the GOES-R program at NOAA, said at another June 24 briefing. She said lightning data allows meteorologists to better understand the severity of a storm and issue warnings accordingly. “The main thing I hear from forecasters is that they have more confidence in a forecast.”
NOAA is working on a new generation of geostationary weather satellites, called GeoXO, and is scheduled to launch in 2032. NASA, which supports NOAA in developing weather satellites, has awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin to build the satellites and BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace) to build ocean sounding and color instruments for the spacecraft.
GOES-U “is the bridge that connects today’s geostationary satellite technology with tomorrow’s technology that promises to be even more sophisticated and impactful,” said Steve Volz, assistant administrator of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service, of GeoXO.
The launch also marked the first time NOAA launched a GOES weather satellite on a SpaceX rocket. The previous three GOES-R satellites were all launched on Atlas 5 rockets from United Launch Alliance, but NASA awarded SpaceX a $152.5 million contract for a Falcon Heavy launch of GOES-U in September 2021. ULA withdrew its bid because it did not there were Atlas missiles left available.
An advantage of using the Falcon Heavy is the additional performance it provides. Julianna Scheiman, director of NASA’s science missions at SpaceX, said at a June 24 pre-launch briefing that the extra performance is measured in the form of the delta V, or change in velocity, that the spacecraft itself must provide to reach orbit. its final geostationary.
Mission requirements were for delta V no higher than 987 meters per second, while Falcon Heavy will place GOES-U in a transfer orbit with a delta V of 566 meters per second. “A smaller number means less energy is required to get the spacecraft to that orbit, which allows them to save that propellant,” she said.
These propulsion savings translate into a longer operational life for GOES-U. The spacecraft has a design specification of 15 years, NOAA’s Sullivan said. “With the added capability that Falcon Heavy gives us, we expect to have over 20 years of fuel life.”
Departure was at 10th for the Falcon Heavy overall and the second contracted by NASA, following the Psyche asteroid mission that launched in October 2023. Another Falcon Heavy will launch the Europa Clipper mission for NASA this October.