GOES-U deployment

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GOES-U spacecraft, the fourth and final satellite in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) – R Series, was successfully deployed into a geostationary orbit approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes after being launched by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on 25 June 2024, at 21:26 UTC (17:26 EDT). According to NASA, GOES-U has “a suite of instruments for advanced imagery, atmospheric measurements, real-time mapping of lightning activity, and detecting approaching space weather hazards. The satellite also includes a new compact coronagraph that will image the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere to detect and characterize coronal mass ejections”. Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky/SpaceX #FalconHeavy #GOESU