spacetoday.net: Falcon Heavy launches GOES-U weather satellite

Posted: Sun, Jun 30, 2024, 9:50 AM ET (1350 GMT)
A Falcon Heavy rocket successfully launched a NOAA weather satellite Tuesday. The Falcon Heavy lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 5:26 pm EDT (2126 GMT) and deployed the GOES-U satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit four and a half hour later, after three burns by the upper stage. GOES-U, which will be renamed GOES-19 after reaching GEO, is the fourth and final satellite in the GOES-R series of advanced geostationary orbit weather satellites. It will replace GOES-16 at the GOES-East location at 75 degrees west longitude in GEO. GOES-U carries the same instruments as the earlier GOES-R satellites as well as a new compact coronagraph instrument for monitoring the sun. The launch was the 10th for the Falcon Heavy and the second for NASA, which managed the development and launch of the satellite for NOAA.