3, 2, 1 (satellite) liftoff! New & final weather eye, GOES -U, set to launch

The newest constellation of weather eyes in space is about to get their fourth and final addition to their sisterhood. GOES-U will launch no earlier than June 25 from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) – R series are the most modern weather satellites we have in space, watching the very dangerous natural adversities raging from simple weather systems to hurricanes, wildfires, lightning, and now even the Sun!

Most of the instruments on the satellite are the same as the other 3 satellites, with upgrades to their technology. One new instrument that we (and many scientists) are excited about is the compact coronagraph (CCOR), it will be the first of its kind on a geosynchronous orbit and will be monitoring the Sun’s corona daily.

Once it becomes operational the tool will study the Sun’s large explosions closely by producing a total solar eclipse for itself (not visible to us on Earth) every 30 minutes, blocking the Sun’s disk, just allowing the corona to show. These observations are key to monitoring geomagnetic storms, like the most recent historic geomagnetic (G5) storm that brought beautiful aurora views as south as Florida the weekend of May 10 and which can greatly affect communications on Earth and ultimately the economy.

After going through extensive crosschecks of all instruments and data after launch, GOES-U will replace GOES-East, currently monitoring the western hemisphere (including the big chunk of the Atlantic’s hurricane corridor), as soon as April 2025.

This will be a historic launch as this is the first weather satellite of this constellation aboard a SpaceX rocket and it will be aboard one of the most powerful rockets, a Falcon Heavy. The 3 predecessors, GOES-16, GOES-17, and GOES-18 also launched from Cape Canaveral, but aboard Atlas V rockets by United Launch Alliance, in 2016, 2018 and 2022 respectively.