NASA launched a new next-generation weather satellite on Thursday evening that will send high-resolution images of storms over the continental United States and enable much more accurate weather forecasting.
The Atlas V rocket carrying the GOES-S (“Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite”) satellite lifted off at 5:02 PM (11:02 PM Central European Time) from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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GOES-S is the second such satellite launched under the joint program of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The previous satellite, GOES-R, was launched in November 2016. According to experts, it helped predict many hurricanes that struck the Caribbean this summer.
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The new generation of satellites, into which NASA and NOAA have invested $11 billion, is set to replace the current GOES satellite fleet, which has not been significantly modernized in the last 40 years.
The launch of two more satellites from the GOES-R program by the American company Lockheed Martin is expected.
