GOES 13, known as
GOES-N before becoming operational, is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
weather satelliteThe weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites can be either polar orbiting, seeing the same swath of the Earth every 12 hours, or geostationary, hovering over the same spot on Earth by orbiting over the equator while...
which is part of the US
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration'sThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
Geostationary Operational Environmental SatelliteThe Geostationary Satellite system, operated by the United States National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service , supports weather forecasting, severe storm tracking, and meteorology research. Spacecraft and ground-based elements of the system work together to provide a continuous...
system. It was launched in 2006. Since April 14, 2010, GOES-13 has been the operational weather satellite for GOES-EAST.
GOES-N was launched aboard a
BoeingThe Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
Delta IV-M+(4,2) rocket, flying from Space Launch Complex 37B at the
Cape Canaveral Air Force StationCape Canaveral Air Force Station is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Command's 45th Space Wing, headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. Located on Cape Canaveral in the state of Florida, CCAFS is the primary launch head of America's Eastern Range with four launch pads...
. The launch occurred at 22:11:00 GMT on 24 May. The launch had been delayed significantly due to a number of issues. Firstly, it had been scheduled to fly on a Delta III, but after three consecutive failures on its first three flights, the Delta III was cancelled, with GOES launches being transferred to the Delta IV. Further delays were caused after the previous Delta IV launch, the maiden flight of the Heavy configuration, suffered a partial failure. Then, two launch attempts in August 2005 were scrubbed, the second just four minutes and twenty six seconds prior to liftoff. After these launch attempts, the rocket's flight termination system batteries expired, requiring replacement. A strike by workers at Boeing subsequently pushed the launch back to May 2006.
At launch, the satellite had a mass of 3133 kilograms (6,907.1 lb), and an expected operational lifespan of ten years, although it carries fuel for longer. It was built by
BoeingThe Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
, based on the BS-601 satellite bus, and was the first of three GOES-N series satellites to be launched. It is currently in a
geostationary orbitA geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers...
at a
longitudeLongitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....
of 75° West. It has been serving actively as GOES-East since April 2010. In December 2007, it was called up to provide coverage of the east coast of the United States during an outage of GOES 12 due to a thruster leak. After the problem with GOES 12
cleared, it resumed operations, and GOES 13 was deactivated again. It was also briefly activated in mid May 2009, when GOES 12 developed another thruster problem, however it did not need to take over operations, and was deactivated by the end of the month. In April 2010, GOES-13 replaced GOES-12 as GOES-East at 75° West .