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Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-16 (GOES-16 )

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Status: Current
Mission Category: Inter-Agency Partnerships
Launch Date: November 19, 2016
Launch Location: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
Designed Life: November 19, 2026

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R Series (GOES-R) is the next generation of geostationary weather satellites. There are four satellites in the series: GOES-R, GOES-S, GOES-T, and GOES-U. The GOES-R Series Program is a collaborative development and acquisition effort between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA to develop, launch, and operate the satellites.

The first in the series, GOES-R, launched at 6:42 PM (Eastern) on November 19, 2016 and was renamed GOES-16. GOES-16 has provided continuous imagery and atmospheric measurements of Earth’s Western Hemisphere, total lightning data, and space weather monitoring, providing critical atmospheric, hydrologic, oceanic, climatic, solar and space data.

GOES-16 began drifting to the GOES-East operational location of 75.2 degrees west longitude on November 30, 2017. Drift was complete on December 11, 2017, and nominal operations resumed on December 18, 2017 when the satellite was declared GOES-East.

The GOES-16 (now GOES-East) instrument suite consists of Earth sensing, solar imaging, and space environment measurement payloads. There are six primary instruments: the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI); the Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS), which includes an Extreme Ultraviolet Sensor (EUVS), X-Ray Sensor (XRS), EUVS/XRS Electrical Box (EXEB), and Sun Positioning Sensor (SPS); the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM); the Magnetometer (MAG); the Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS), which includes an Energetic Heavy Ion Sensor (EHIS), Magnetospheric Particle Sensor – Low Energy Range (MPS-LO), Magnetospheric Particle Sensor – High Energy Range (MPS-HI), Solar and Galactic Proton Sensor (SPGS), and Data Processing Unit (DPU); and the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI).

Key Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-16 Facts

Mission/Portal Page: http://science.nasa.gov/missions/goes-r/
Launch Vehicle: Atlas V 541 expendable launch vehicle (ELV)
Altitude:Distance from sea level. 35800km
Origination: NASA/NOAA