Delta IV Rocket Raised At Cape Canaveral

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket was erected at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station earlier this week as NASA geared up for the launch in April of a new hurricane-tracking satellite.

The Delta IV and its payload -- a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite known by the acronym GOES-O -- are slated to blast off around April 28 from Launch Complex 37.

The payload is one of a new generation of weather satellites built by Boeing for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NASA is responsible for procuring and overseeing launch services for the spacecraft.

GOES satellites provide the familiar weather pictures seen on television newscasts around the country. They play a key role in tracking the development of hurricanes off the west coast of Africa and are used to track the course of tropical storms as they cross the Atlantic Ocean and threaten communities in the Caribbean Sea and along the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Data from the satellites are crucial to forecasting projected paths of hurricanes and issuing advanced warnings that enable communities to board up and evacuate as cyclones approach.

NOAA and NASA in 1998 awarded a contract to Hughes Space and Communications -- now Boeing -- for the manufacture, launch and delivery in orbit of up to four advanced weather satellites as well as the delivery of associated ground systems elements.

The basic contract called for Boeing to build two spacecraft, but NOAA exercised an option for a third spacecraft soon after the original pact was signed. The first of the satellites -- GOES-N -- was successfully launched by Boeing on May 24, 2006 -- about six months before the formation of United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that merges the Delta and Atlas families of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELVs). ULA is a prime launch services contractor for federal government agencies that include NASA, NOAA, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office.

The GOES-O spacecraft to be launched in April is scheduled to be shipped to Cape Canaveral aboard an Air Force C-17 heavy-lift cargo aircraft next week. It will be transported to Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville for final integration and testing before subsequent delivery to Launch Complex 37 for installation atop the Delta IV.

The third in the series of satellites -- GOES-P -- is in ground storage at a Boeing facility in El Segundo, California, and will undergo final thermal vacuum testing during the next several months.

That satellite currently is scheduled to blast off Dec. 16 aboard another Delta IV rocket at Launch Complex 37.

ABOUT THE IMAGES: Click to enlarge and save this series of NASA images taken Wednesday as the Delta IV rocket was raised at Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. You can also click the enlarged images to get even bigger, more detailed views. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann.