ULA Atlas V Rocket, NOAA’s GOES-S Satellite Together for Launch

The payload fairing containing NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) is mated to the ULA Atlas V rocket
The payload fairing containing NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) is mated to the ULA Atlas V rocket Feb. 16, 2018, inside the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41. Photo credit: NASA/Glenn Benson
The Centaur upper stage arrives at Space Launch Complex 41
The Centaur upper stage that will help launch NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S, or GOES-S, arrives at the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

With its March 1 launch date closing in, the next in a series of advanced geostationary weather satellites is in place for liftoff.

NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-S) will be delivered to orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

With the Atlas V booster already in place, teams recently attached four solid rocket boosters and lifted the Centaur upper stage into place. Finally, the GOES-S satellite, secured inside the Atlas V payload fairing, moved from its processing location at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville to the launch complex, where it was carefully raised into position atop the assembled rocket.

GOES-S is the second in NOAA’s GOES-R series of satellites. All are designed to significantly improve the detection and observation of environmental phenomena that directly affect public safety, protection of property and the nation’s economic health and prosperity.