GOES-15 Replaces GOES-11 Over Western Hemisphere

摘要

GOES-15, the newest spacecraft in the U.S. fleet of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), replaced GOES-11 as the GOES-West satellite Dec. 6, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the day of the transition. GOES-11, a Space Systems/Loral-built spacecraft known as GOES-L prior to entering operations, was launched in May 2000 aboard an Atlas 2A rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. NOAA said the satellite will be boosted into a graveyard orbit approximately 300 kilometers above its geostationary orbit.