GOES-1, designated GOES-A and SMS-C prior to entering service, was a

weather satellite A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites are mainly of two types: polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asyn ...

, developed by the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, operated by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

(NOAA). It was the first

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), operated by the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service division, supports weather fo ...

(GOES) to be launched.

Launch

GOES-A was launched atop a Delta 2914 from LC-17B at the

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the sta ...

. The launch occurred at 22:40:00 UTC on 16 October 1975, and left the satellite in a

geostationary transfer orbit In space mission design, a geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or geosynchronous transfer orbit is a highly elliptical type of geocentric orbit, usually with a perigee as low as low Earth orbit (LEO) and an apogee as high as geostationary orbit ...

. Following launch, it raised itself to a

geostationary orbit A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular orbit, circular geosynchronous or ...

by means of its onboard SVM-5

apogee motor An apogee kick motor (AKM) is a rocket motor that is regularly employed on artificial satellites to provide the final impulse to change the trajectory from the transfer orbit into its final orbit (most commonly circular orbit, circular). For a ...

, at which time it was redesignated GOES-1.

Operations

It was positioned over the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

to gather data for the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP). GOES-1 was equipped with a Visible Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer (VISSR), which provided day and night imagery of terrestrial cloud conditions. It returned its first image on 25 October 1975, nine days after launch. The satellite continuously monitored weather events and relayed this meteorological data from over 10,000 surface locations into a central processing center. The data was then incorporated into weather prediction models. It also carried a Space Environment Monitor (SEM) and a

Data Collection System Data collection system (DCS) is a computer application that facilitates the process of data collection, allowing specific, structured information to be gathered in a systematic fashion, subsequently enabling data analysis to be performed on the info ...

(DCS), derived from those used on TIROS satellites. GOES-1 was replaced by GOES-3, which was launched in 1978. After finishing operations over the

, it was moved to replace

SMS-2 The Synchronous Meteorological Satellite (SMS) program, was a program where NASA developed two weather satellites; which were placed into geosynchronous orbit. History SMS-1 was launched May 17, 1974 and SMS-2 was launched February 6, 1975. Bot ...

over the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. It remained operational there until 3 February 1985 and it was deactivated by NASA on 7 March 1985.

References

External links

* NASA's National Science Space Center (

NSSDC The NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA) serves as the permanent archive for NASA space science mission data. "Space science" includes astronomy and astrophysics, solar and space plasma (physics), plasma physics, and planetary scien ...

) satellite ID
1975-100A
{{DEFAULTSORT:GOES-1 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites Spacecraft launched in 1975

Launch

Operations

See also

References

External links