WASHINGTON — SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off June 25, carrying the latest spacecraft in a series of geostationary weather satellites that also includes several firsts.
The Falcon Heavy lifted off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39A at 5:26 p.m. ET, 10 minutes into the two-hour window, as launch directors found favorable weather despite the previous day’s forecast calling for only a 30% chance of acceptable weather.
The rocket’s payload, the GOES-U weather satellite, is scheduled to deploy from the Falcon Heavy’s second stage four and a half hours after liftoff, once the stage completes a sequence of three ignitions to place the satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit.
GOES-U is the fourth and final satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) R series built by Lockheed Martin for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The spacecraft, which will be renamed GOES-19 once in geostationary orbit, will undergo in-orbit commissioning before moving to 75 degrees East in GEO and taking over from GOES-16 as the operational GOES-East satellite.
The satellite carries a suite of ground and space science instruments similar to the three previous GOES-R satellites, but also includes a Compact Coronagraph (CCOR) instrument for observing the Sun. CCOR will monitor the Sun’s corona for flares and coronal mass ejections that affect space weather, and will take over for the nearly 30-year-old Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft.
Meteorologists say the observations provided by the first three GOES-R weather satellites have greatly improved weather forecasts. “The GOES-R series of satellites is a game changer for us,” said Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service, at a June 24 pre-launch briefing. “Since the series was first launched in 2016, the latest GOES series has enabled new and improved forecasts, warnings and services to help save lives and protect property.”
New features in the GOES-R series include a flash mapper. “For forecasters, I think it took them a while to realize what it could do,” Pam Sullivan, NOAA’s GOES-R program director, said at another June 24 briefing. She said the lightning data allows meteorologists to better understand the severity of a storm and issue warnings accordingly. “The main thing I hear from forecasters is that they have more confidence in the forecast.”
NOAA is working on a new generation of geostationary weather satellites called GeoXO, scheduled for launch in 2032. NASA, which supports NOAA in weather satellite development, has awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin to build the satellites and BAE Systems (formerly Ball Aerospace) to build the acoustic and ocean color spacecraft instruments.
GOES-U “is the bridge that connects today’s geostationary satellite technology with tomorrow’s technology, which promises to be even more sophisticated and efficient,” said Steve Volz, assistant administrator of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service, GeoXO.
The launch was also the first time NOAA launched the GOES weather satellite on a SpaceX rocket. All three previous GOES-R satellites launched on United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rockets, but NASA awarded SpaceX a $152.5 million contract to launch the GOES-U Falcon Heavy in September 2021. ULA withdrew its bid because it had no remaining rockets Atlas. available.
One of the benefits of using the Falcon Heavy is the additional power it provides. Julianna Scheiman, NASA’s director of science missions at SpaceX, said at a June 24 pre-launch briefing that the additional power is measured in the form of delta V, or the change in velocity the spacecraft itself must provide to reach its final geostationary orbit.
The mission requirements were for a delta V of no higher than 987 meters per second, while the Falcon Heavy will place GOES-U on a transfer orbit with a delta V of 566 meters per second. “A smaller number means the spacecraft needs less energy to get into that orbit, which allows them to save propellant,” she said.
These fuel savings translate into a longer GOES-U operational life. The spacecraft has a design specification of 15 years, NOAA’s Sullivan said. “With the added capability that the Falcon Heavy gives us, we expect to have a fuel life of more than 20 years.”
The start was at 10Thursday for Falcon Heavy overall and the second contracted by NASA, following the Psyche asteroid mission that launched in October 2023. Another Falcon Heavy will launch the Europa Clipper mission for NASA this October.