Next-Gen Weather Satellite Arrives at KSC

The latest in a series of unmanned spacecraft preparing to launch from Cape Canaveral has arrived on the Space Coast for final testing.

A next-generation National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellite, named GOES-O, arrived Tuesday at Kennedy Space Center in a C-17 cargo plane.

It was trucked to Astrotech in Titusville for processing.

The spacecraft, the second of three advanced Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), is targeted to launch April 28 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket.

When activated in orbit more than 22,000 miles above Earth, the Boeing Co.-built satellite will observe 60 percent of the planet, an area including the United States.

Better imaging systems will improve the forecasting and tracking of severe weather events and provide data for climate studies.

GOES-O - to be renamed GOES-14 on orbit - follows GOES-13, which launched from Cape Canaveral on May 24, 2006. The third satellite, GOES-P, is tentatively scheduled to be the Cape's last launch this year - on New Year's Eve.

GOES-14 will join GOES-13 as on-orbit back-ups for satellites that are nearing the end of their lives.

Here's a fact sheet providing more information about GOES-O.

Last month, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) were shipped to KSC and Astrotech. Their launch has been pushed back from April 24 to May 20.

NASA's Kepler telescope now sits atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket ready for launch at 10:49 p.m. Friday. It was delivered from Astrotech to Launch Complex 17-B on Feb. 19.

An Air Force communications satellite is also near mating with a ULA Atlas V rocket tentatively scheduled to launch March 14.

Click here to see a complete list of upcoming Cape launches.

IMAGE NOTE: Click on the images to enlarge them. First: At the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, workers checked the latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES, as it moves out of the C-17 military cargo aircraft. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett. Second: Artist's illustration of the GOES-O satellite on orbit. Credit: Boeing illustration by Jim Santoni. Third: The GOES-O mission decal. Source: NASA.