* Astronomy

Press statement: GOES-N Prelaunch Press Conferance

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-N (GOES-N) to be launched into orbit for NASA aboard a Boeing Delta IV rocket will be the focus of a prelaunch press conference to be held on Saturday, August 13. The event will start at 17:00 GMT (1 p.m. EDT) at the NASA Kennedy Space Centre Press Site.

GOES-N, currently scheduled for launch on Sunday, Aug. 14, is the first of three new geostationary weather and environmental satellites built for NASA by Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. GOES-N will feature a highly stable pointing platform, which will improve the performance of its Imager and Sounder that are important instruments for creating daily weather-prediction models and for hurricane forecasting.
Data from GOES-N will be valuable for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Ocean Service, which provides oceanographic circulation models and forecasts for U.S. coastal communities.

GOES-N will also provide expanded capability for the space and solar environment-monitoring instruments. Forecasts and warnings for solar disturbances will be enhanced. This will protect investments of billions of dollars by the government and private sector for assets on the ground and in space.
As with all of NOAA's geostationary and polar-orbiting weather satellites, GOES-N will also be able to relay distress signals detected from emergency locator beacons on the ground and at sea.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland is responsible for designing and developing the spacecraft and its instruments for NOAA.


Nasa TV (realplayer) Webcast starts at 18:00 GMT

-- Edited by Blobrana at 00:01, 2005-08-13

The launch of the GOES-N weather satellite has been delayed by another day due to continued pre-flight engineering reviews.
Lift-off is now expected no sooner than Saturday evening, 13th August, during a launch window between 22:30 and 23:04 GMT.

The launch must occur by Sunday or else face waiting until October due to orbital lighting issues that would impact the satellite's early life in space.
Saturday's weather forecast calls for a 60% chance of acceptable conditions. Clouds and winds will be the chief concerns.

A backup launch opportunity is available Sunday evening. Better weather conditions are expected with a 70% chance of meeting the launch rules.

NASA has announced that the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-N (GOES-N) is ready to launch. The GOES-N launch window is from 22:23 to 23:01 GMT, Friday, July 29, 2005. Lift-off is from Space Launch Complex 37, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, US.

GOES-N joins a system of weather satellites that provide timely environmental information to meteorologists and the public. The GOES system graphically displays the intensity, path and size of storms. Early warning of impending severe weather enhances the public's ability to take shelter and protect property.

"NASA is proud to provide this tool for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) use in weather operations" - Martin Davis, GOES program manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre.

The GOES system serves the central and eastern Pacific Ocean; North, Central, and South America; and the central and western Atlantic Ocean.

The system includes GOES-10, 11 and 12. GOES-11 is in an on-orbit storage mode. GOES-N becomes GOES-13 shortly after launch. It will be checked out, stored on-orbit and available for activation should either GOES-10 or 12 fails or exhausts its fuel. The satellite is the first in the GOES N-P series of spacecraft that will continuously observe and measure meteorological phenomena in real time. The series will provide the meteorological community and atmospheric scientists improved observational and measurement data.

GOES-N will be launched on a Boeing Delta IV (4, 2) vehicle under an FAA commercial license. The satellite will be turned over to NASA after a successful checkout is completed by Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems.

Concerns over the onboard batteries that power the Boeing Delta 4 rocket's safety destruct system has forced another delay in launching the GOES-N civilian weather satellite.

The Sunday evening's planned lift-off from Cape Canaveral will be postponed until sometime in July as a result.

"Recent environmental testing of a different lot of batteries resulted in broken leads that connect the batteries' cell plates to the terminal" - Boeing statement.

The rocket carries two batteries, both mounted to its second stage, for the Range Safety's flight termination system.
If the vehicle experiences a major problem during ascent or veers off course, that destruct system can be triggered to destroy the rocket.