WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - NASA has successfully launched the fourth and final satellite in a series of advanced weather satellites for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA.
The satellite launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:26 p.m. ET Tuesday. Mission managers confirmed within hours that the spacecraft's solar arrays successfully deployed, and the spacecraft was operating on its own power.
The mission of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-U, is to provide continuous coverage of weather and hazardous environmental conditions across much of the U.S. Western Hemisphere, according to NASA.
'As communities across the country and the world feel the effects of extreme weather, satellites like GOES-U keep a close watch to monitor weather in real time,' said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. 'NASA and NOAA have worked together for several decades to bring critical data back down to Earth to prepare for severe storms, fire detection, and much more. This fleet of advanced satellites is strengthening resilience to our changing climate, and protecting humanity from weather hazards on Earth, and in space.'
In addition to its critical role in terrestrial weather prediction, the GOES constellation of satellites helps forecasters predict space weather near Earth that can interfere with satellite electronics, GPS, and radio communications.
The GOES-U satellite goes beyond the capabilities of its predecessors with a new space weather instrument, the Compact Coronograph-1, which blocks the Sun's bright light so scientists can observe the relatively fainter solar atmosphere.
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