As the Washington, D.C. area gets hit with a major winter storm this weekend, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is ready to launch the latest weather satellite into Earth orbit.
Known as GOES-P (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P), the satellite was developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. GOES satellites provide the familiar weather pictures seen on television newscasts every day.
The spacecraft was fueled last week for it’s planned 14 years in orbit. The system is planned for launch no earlier than March 1 and will orbit approximately 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface monitoring weather conditions. GOES-P will ride into orbit aboard a Boeing-built Delta IV rocket.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Md., handles project management for the GOES program that provides nearly continuous imaging of the Earth. This data is used by forecasters to better measure changes in atmospheric temperature and moisture distributions and hence increase the accuracy of their forecasts.
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