NOAA to Shut Down GOES- 14 and 15 by End of January 2020

Aerospace and Defense Review | Friday, December 27, 2019

The GOES- 15 was working in tandem with the GOES- 17, NOAA's latest geostationary orbit weather satellite, located at an orbital location called GOES-West at 135 degrees west longitude. The GOES- 17 was launched in 2017, but suffered significant problems with one of its primary instruments, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), due to a blockage in a loop heat pipe

Fremont, CA: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is set to complete the transition to a new generation of geostationary weather satellites in January after it shuts down two older satellites. The GOES-14 and GOES-15 spacecraft will be shut down and placed into orbital storage by January 31st, 2020, which will mark the completion of the transition. The two spacecraft, which were launched in 2009 and 2010 respectively, have the feature to be turned back on if required.

The GOES- 15 was working in tandem with the GOES- 17, NOAA's latest geostationary orbit weather satellite, located at an orbital location called GOES-West at 135 degrees west longitude. The GOES- 17 was launched in 2017, but suffered significant problems with one of its primary instruments, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), due to a blockage in a loop heat pipe. Engineers then had to develop workarounds that allowed the instrument to provide 97 percent of its expected data output.

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Known as the GOES- S prior to its launch, the GOES- 17 is the second spacecraft in the GOES- R series of weather satellites. The GOES- 16 operates at the GOES-East orbital slot at 75 degrees west. Fortunately, it has not suffered the same problems with its ABI instrument like the GOES- 17. As a backup and to collect space weather data, NOAA had been operating the GOES- 14 from a third location at 105 degrees west. However, with the GOES- 16 generating more advanced space weather data, the dependency on the GOES- 14 has reduced significantly. At the same time, the GOES- 17 provides space weather data in a developmental system.

The GOES- 16 and 17 are the first two satellites of the GOES- R series. The third, known as GOES-T, is scheduled for launch in December 2021. The NOAA has awarded a USD 165.7 million contract to United Launch Alliance to launch the GOES- T on an Atlas 5, which was also used for the launch of the previous two satellites. The fourth satellite of the series, GOES- U, is set to launch sometime in 2024.

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