page_title: GOES-16
section_title: Launch and mission profile
hierarchical_section_title: GOES-16 / Launch and mission profile
caption_attribution_description: At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 41, an Atlas V rocket with NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-R, lifts off at 6:42 p.m. EST. GOES-R is the first satellite in a series of next-generation GOES satellites for NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. It will launch to a geostationary orbit over the western hemisphere to provide images of storms and help meteorologists predict severe weather conditionals and develop long-range forecasts. Photo credit: NASA/Tony Gray &amp; Tim Terry NASA image use policy.
context_page_description: GOES-16, formerly known as GOES-R before reaching geostationary orbit, is the first of the GOES-R series of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. GOES-16 serves as the operational geostationary weather satellite in the GOES East position at 75.2°W, providing a view centered on the Americas. GOES-16 provides high spatial and temporal resolution imagery of the Earth through 16 spectral bands at visible and infrared wavelengths using its Advanced Baseline Imager. GOES-16's Geostationary Lightning Mapper is the first operational lightning mapper flown in geostationary orbit. The spacecraft also includes four other scientific instruments for monitoring space weather and the Sun.
  GOES-16's design and instrumentation began in 1999 and was intended to fill key NOAA satellite requirements published that year. Following nearly a decade of instrument planning, spacecraft fabrication was contracted to Lockheed Martin Space Systems in 2008; construction of GOES-16 began in 2012 and lasted until 2014 when the satellite entered the testing phase.
context_section_description: NASA selected the Atlas V 541 operated by United Launch Services as the launch vehicle for GOES-R on 5 April 2012, with a launch date slated for October 2015 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41. Combined with the subsequent GOES-S, launch operations were expected to cost US$446 million. The launch date was chosen relatively early to maintain the operation of the GOES satellite constellation despite there being only a 48% confidence in meeting the October 2015 launch date; an audit by the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Commerce in April 2013 highlighted these concerns and projected a February 2016 launch which would reduce development stress at the cost of increasing the risk for gaps in satellite coverage should the operational backup satellites fail. Difficulties with GOES-R software and communications equipment caused the expected launch to be delayed to early 2016, and on 15 October 2015, the launch was pushed further to 13 October 2016. In early October 2016, GOES-R was secured in preparation for the close passage of Hurricane Matthew and did not sustain any damage. However, the tipping of a ground system rail van housing the spacecraft and the discovery of a booster fault on the Atlas V rocket—the same issue that had prevented the launch of WorldView-4 earlier in 2016—resulted in another delay of the launch window to 19 November 2016.
  On 18 November 2016, the mated GOES-R spacecraft and the Atlas V launch vehicle were moved to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41. GOES-R was launched on 19 November 2016 at 23:42 UTC (6:42 p.m. EST) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41 aboard an Atlas V rocket. An undisclosed issue on the Eastern Range and verification of a potential concern on another rocket had delayed the launch by an hour towards the end of the 19 November launch window. The Atlas V was in the 541 configuration with tail number AV-069 and was administered by United Launch Alliance; the launch was the 100th of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program and 138th of the Atlas program. The Atlas V's ascent was directed slightly south of east over the Atlantic Ocean. Following the rocket's first stage, additional burns in subsequent stages steered the spacecraft towards the altitude needed for geosynchronous orbit. Spacecraft separation from the launch vehicle occurred over Indonesia roughly 3.5 hours after launch, placing GOES-R in an elliptical low-inclination geostationary transfer orbit with a perigee of 5,038 mi (8,108 km) and an apogee of 21,926 mi (35,286 km).
  The spacecraft then initiated several burns using its own independent propulsion systems to refine its orbit to place it in the intended geostationary position, with eight days dedicated to increasing its orbital radius and four to orbital fine-tuning. During the first corrective burn, the truss holding the main engine nozzle warmed to anomalously high temperatures. Although the exceeded pre-flight temperature limits were revised, the subsequent four burns were limited to less than 41 minutes each in duration out of an abundance of caution, bringing it to its preliminary geostationary orbit ten days after launch. In reaching geostationary orbit, GOES-R was redesignated as GOES-16, beginning a yearlong extended checkout and validation phase. The spacecraft was initially positioned in a non-operational test position at 89.5°W, with GOES-13 and GOES-15 serving as the operational weather satellites in the traditional GOES East and GOES West positions, respectively. Instruments were initially kept dormant for a 30-day period to allow for outgassing and the clearing of any contaminants in the spacecraft. The first science data from GOES-16 was received from the MAG instrument on 22 December 2016, while the first images from ABI were collected on 15 January 2017 and released on 23 January 2017. On 25 May 2017, NOAA announced that GOES-16 would occupy the GOES East position once operational, succeeding GOES-13. GOES-16's move to its operational position began at around 13:30 UTC on 30 N
caption: The launch of GOES-R aboard an Atlas V rocket on 19 November 2016
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