GOES-T Ready For Launch

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket carrying the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-T (GOES-T), is secured on the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Feb. 28, 2022.
GOES-T will lift off atop the Atlas V from SLC-41 on March 1, 2022, at 4:38 p.m. GOES-T is the third satellite in the GOES-R series that will continue to help meteorologists observe and predict local weather events that affect public safety.

GOES-T will be renamed GOES-18 once it reaches geostationary orbit. GOES-18 will go into operational service as GOES West to provide critical data for the U.S. West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America, and the Pacific Ocean.

The launch is managed by NASA’s Launch Services Program based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, America’s multi-user spaceport.

Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett KSC-20220228-PH-KLS01_0228 larger image