WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched June 25 carrying the final spacecraft in a series of geostationary weather satellites, which also contain several firsts.
Falcon Heavy lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Complex 39A at 5:26 pm ET, 10 minutes into the two-hour launch schedule, and launch managers were blessed with good weather despite a forecast the previous day predicting only a 30% chance of favorable weather.
The rocket’s payload, a GOES-U weather satellite, is scheduled to be deployed from there four and a half hours after liftoff after the Falcon Heavy’s second stage completes three burns to place the satellite into geostationary transfer orbit.
GOES-U is the fourth and final satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) R-series built by Lockheed Martin for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Once in geostationary orbit, the spacecraft, which will be renamed GOES-19, will undergo orbital commissioning before being moved to geostationary orbit at 75 degrees east longitude and taking over from GOES-16 as the operational GOES-East satellite.
The satellite will carry the same suite of Earth and space science instruments as the three previous GOES-R satellites, but will also carry the Compact Coronagraph for Observing the Sun (CCOR) instrument, which monitors the solar corona for flares and coronal mass ejections that affect space weather, and will replace the nearly 30-year-old Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
Meteorologists say observations from the first three GOES-R weather satellites have significantly improved weather forecasts. “The GOES-R series of satellites has been a game changer for us,” National Weather Service Director Ken Graham said during a prelaunch briefing June 24. “Since the series first launched in 2016, the latest GOES series has enabled new and improved forecasts, warnings and services that help save lives and protect property.”
One of the new features of the GOES-R series is lightning mapping. “I think it took forecasters a while to understand what this could do,” Pam Sullivan, director of NOAA’s GOES-R program, said in a separate briefing on June 24. She said the lightning data allows meteorologists to better understand the severity of storms and issue warnings accordingly. “What we’re hearing most often from forecasters is that they now have more confidence in their forecasts.”
NOAA is working on a new generation of geostationary weather satellites, called GeoXO, scheduled to begin launching in 2032. NASA, which is assisting NOAA in developing the weather satellites, has contracted Lockheed Martin to build the satellites and BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace) to build the acoustic and ocean colorimeters for the spacecraft.
“GOES-U is the bridge between today’s geostationary satellite technology and future technologies that are expected to be even more sophisticated and have an even greater impact,” said Steve Boltz, GeoXO associate administrator for NOAA’s Satellite Information Services division.
The launch also marked the first time NOAA launched a GOES weather satellite on a SpaceX rocket. All three previous GOES-R satellites were launched aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rockets, but NASA awarded SpaceX a $152.5 million contract for the Falcon Heavy launch of GOES-U in September 2021. ULA withdrew its bid because there were no remaining Atlas rockets available.
One of the benefits of using Falcon Heavy is the extra performance it provides. Julianna Sheiman, SpaceX’s NASA science mission director, said in a June 24 pre-launch briefing that the extra performance will be measured in the form of delta-V, or change in velocity, that the spacecraft itself needs to provide to reach its final geostationary orbit.
Although the mission requirement was for the delta-V to be less than 987 meters per second, Falcon Heavy will put GOES-U on a transfer orbit with a delta-V of 566 meters per second. “A lower number means the spacecraft needs less energy to get to that orbit, which saves fuel,” she said.
Those fuel savings will extend GOES-U’s operational lifespan. NOAA’s Sullivan said the spacecraft’s design specifications are 15 years. “With the additional capabilities we’re getting with Falcon Heavy, we expect the fuel life to be more than 20 years.”
The launch is 10Number This will be the second for Falcon Heavy overall, and the second project contracted by NASA after the Psyche asteroid mission, which is set to launch in October 2023. NASA’s Europa Clipper mission is also scheduled to be launched by Falcon Heavy this October.