NASA, NOAA ready for launch of GOES-U aboard SpaceX Falcon Heavy

Date:
Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:20:02 +0000

Description:
The final satellite of the GOES-R series of satellites, GOES-U, is set to launch on The post NASA, NOAA ready for launch of GOES-U aboard SpaceX Falcon Heavy appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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The final satellite of the GOES-R series of satellites, GOES-U, is set to launch on June 25 aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. The two-hour window opens at 5:16 PM EDT (21:16 UTC), with the vehicle set to take off from LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center.

The spacecraft will be placed into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO)
before it takes its final orbital position in Geostationary Orbit (GEO). The two side boosters will then return to land at LZ-1 and LZ-2 located within Cape Canaveral Space Force Station just miles away from where it took off.



GOES-R program



The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) program saw the launch of GOES-R in 2016 aboard an Atlas V. While NASA and NOAA have a fleet of weather satellites, the four most recent satellites, including GOES-U, offer three times more channels, four times better resolution, and scans that are five times faster than their predecessors.

This information is used for near real-time weather predictions, in
particular during severe weather such as hurricanes. Between GOES-R, renamed GOES-16 and currently operating as GOES East, and GOES-T, known as GOES-18
and operating as GOES-West, the constellation can be seen from the west coast of Africa to New Zealand. GOES-U undergoes testing in a Lockheed Martin clean room. (Credit: Lockheed Martin)

Systems move in and out and we get long lead times, said Jim Valenti, the assistant program director for the GOES-R satellite program at NOAA, in an interview with NSF. Then were looking consistently and persistently at the continental United States for any kind of an issue, as well as just, hey, whats going on? If nothings going on, then theres nothing.

In addition to having the additional view to be able to track systems as they form, Valenti noted that the time between images from the current GOES satellites decreased from 30 minutes to 30 seconds. He says a conversation with a meteorologist from Orlando led to an analogy that stuck with him.

One of the things he said is with the refresh rate that we have and the resolution, he said its like watching liquid now as opposed to like a
flipbook or, you know, from an animation standpoint, Valenti recalled. And
for severe storm activity, be it a front with thunderstorms and a lot of lightning or a hurricane, the human intuition is able to read that liquid and put that together with the other data that they get from surface observables and satellite instrumentation that doesnt provide an image, but maybe
provides temperature soundings.

These satellites all operate 24/7 with very minimal downtime. Pam Calderwood, the deputy project manager for GOES-U at Lockheed Martin, noted in an interview with NSF that sometimes they even have to complete updates and upgrades to the spacecrafts software mid-observation. Hurricane Humberto as seen from NOAAs GOES-East satellite on Sept. 15, 2019. Hurricane Humberto as seen from NOAAs GOES East satellite (formerly GOES-R). (Credit: NOAA)

When you take a look at an image thats located 22,300 miles above the Earth, any type of jitter, you know how you get camera jitter, will go through and make the images pretty much worthless, Calderwood said. So whats real important, and thats why they have two systems, is we have to be communicating, 24 hours a day, 365 [days a year].

Once launched, GOES-U will be renamed to GOES-19. That will replace GOES-16
as the primary GOES-East satellite, which will then become a redundant
backup. This is similar to how GOES-18 is currently active as GOES West with GOES-17 acting as a backup.

These satellites are so important to our nation, the economy, and the
populace for protecting life and property, that we are required, NOAA, to
have an on-orbit backup at all times to fill in in case we have an issue with one of the operational spacecraft in either the east or the west locations, Vanelti said. So GOES-R will move to a storage location over the central United States and be placed in that role. It wont be actively observing, but it is on orbit and ready to assume duties if we have some kind of incident with our east-to-west spacecraft.

Instrumentation

One major reason GOES-U will take the primary role is that it includes a new solar observation instrument called the Compact Coronograph-1 (CCOR), which images the suns outermost layer, the corona, to detect and characterize coronal mass ejections (CME). The Compact Coronagraph instrument is installed onto GOES-U. (Credit: NOAA)

Both Valenti and Calderwood said the solar instruments on the GOES
satellites, which also include the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUVI) and
Extreme Ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS), are important in protecting technology as well as people.

You can see that its really getting in on the impacts to our power grid. It affects GPS, Calderwood said. There are times when we have huge solar flares that are coming in that they actually will reroute airline flights. Of
course, weve got astronauts up there at the International Space Station, that we have to be very concerned about them getting additional radiation.

[NOAA] works closely with power companies, satellite communications, GPS navigation to make sure theyre aware of the implications of the solar storm
as well because those are the industries that are impacted by severe solar weather, Valenti said.

With so much information being collected, Lockheed Martin had to come up with a way to relay the large amounts of data.

Lockheeds role specifically in the geostationary lightning mapper is we have to go through and compress the data, Calderwood noted. When there is approximately a million lightning strikes in the US every day, thats tons and tons of images. And the way its able to do that is it literally goes out and it images 500 times per second. 24 hours worth of lightning strikes as viewed by the GOES East lightning mapper. (Credit: NOAA)

[NOAAs] got their scientists that are working on absorbing data, and then the Lockheed satellite does the data collection and then goes through and sends
it to other places in the United States as needed.

This mission marks the first GOES satellite to be launched aboard SpaceXs Falcon Heavy rocket. After previously launching on Atlas V, which integrates vertically, it became a challenge to prepare the satellite for Falcons horizontal integration method.

We had to design different fixtures, and there was a lot of design that went on to go through and take into account that we are now sitting with close to, what is it, 10,955 pounds, Calderwood said. Rather than sitting up on its
end, like we had designed it for, its now sitting on its side.

Calderwood noted that as a result, the process has taken longer as they deal with new configurations.

We had to take a look at our electrical connections, she said. You know, do
we have access to the electrical connections when youre on your side versus
in more of a stacked position? And then the whole idea of every single hazardous operation we had too.

Launch

This Falcon Heavy will be flying with three brand-new boosters. The core stage, B1087, will be expanded. However, the side cores, B1072 and B1086,
will return to LZ-1 and LZ-2 where they will then be retrieved and flown
again in the future, either as a Falcon Heavy side core or converted into a single stick Falcon 9.

At T-50 minutes, the first stage will begin to fill with RP-1, a refined form of kerosene. The first stage liquid oxygen (LOX) fill starts about five minutes later. The first stage, including the core and side boosters, will have approximately 287,000 kg of LOX and 123,000 kg of RP-1 when full.

Fiveminutes before liftoff, the second stage will begin receiving RP-1, followed by LOX loading approximately 17 minutes later. T-7 minutes until liftoff, the 27 Merlin 1D engines are chilled before ignition. Shortly before T-1 minute, Falcon Heavys onboard computers take over control of the count as the vehicle is in startup, followed shortly after by tanks reaching flight pressure.

Just before liftoff, the 27 engines on the side boosters and core begin a staggered ignition process with the assistance of TEA/TEB. Once all engines reach full thrust, the vehicle will check its health. If all is nominal, 5.1 million pounds of thrust will propel the vehicle away from LC-39A.

Less than a minute after launch, Falcon Heavy reaches Max-Q, when the vehicle is enduring the maximum dynamic forces during the flight.

All 27 engines continue to burn until about two and a half minutes after liftoff, when both side boosters cut off, followed by separation seconds later. Those boosters will perform a maneuver to flip themselves around
before conducting their second burn, called a boost back burn, which puts B1064 and B1065 on course to return to LZ-1 and LZ-2. This payload fairing is #ReadyToGOES !

GOES-U is now encapsulated inside these fairing halves, which will protect it from aerodynamic pressure and heating. The two-hour window opens at 5:16 p.m. EDT on June 25 for launch on a @SpaceX Falcon Heavy from @NASAKennedy in pic.twitter.com/kc6zT2iiDi

NASA's Launch Services Program (@NASA_LSP) June 17, 2024



About three and a half minutes into the flight, a series of events happen in quick succession. The center booster shuts down its nine engines before separating from the second stage seconds later. Then, the Stage 2 Merlin Vacuum (MVac) engine ignites in a process known as second engine start one (SES-1). Shortly after, the payload fairing halves, which have been
protecting the USSF-44 payloads before the vehicle entered space, are no longer needed and fall back to Earth to be recovered.

Meanwhile, a little more than seven minutes after lifting off, the two side boosters begin their entry burn as they once again encounter Earths atmosphere. That puts them on track for one final burn for each side booster, known as the landing burn. This final relight will slow the vehicles down until each gently touches down at LZ-1 and LZ-2 seconds apart from the other, completing their mission approximately eight and a half minutes after first lifting off a few miles away.

As this is happening, the second stage will have completed its first burn leading to the second engine cutoff one (SECO-1). The next step will involve
a second relight, propelling the second stage and GOES-U to the geostationary transfer orbit.

The satellites final orbit will be in a circular 35,786 km (22,236 mi) equatorial orbit. Once it officially becomes GOES-East, which Valeti said is expected to occur as soon as April 2025, it will be located at a longitude of 75.2 degrees west.

Teams that worked on the spacecraft say theyre ready to see GOES-U fly.

This satellite is the fourth in the series, so its kind of the culmination of over two decades of work, Valenti said. It adds on to the nearly 50 years of cooperation that NOAA and NASA have put together building and operating GOES.

Its been a tremendous opportunity to go through and support such a legacy, Calderwood said. When I speak to the team and the shoulder-to-shoulder work with the Goddard Space Flight Center, theyve got a thermal engineer, weve got a thermal engineer, and all throughout the testing, all throughout
everything, theyve been next to us side by side. This is truly in my entire career, one of the most integrated teams Ive ever seen.

(Lead image: Falcon Heavy ahead of launch via Sawyer Rosenstein for NSF)

The post NASA, NOAA ready for launch of GOES-U aboard SpaceX Falcon Heavy appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2024/06/goes-u-falcon-heavy/


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