Story Continues BelowThe 224-foot tall Delta rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 37-B at 6:57 p.m. EST. Blastoff was delayed by 40 minutes while the launch team waited for strong upper-level winds to decrease within the limits of the launch vehicle's control system to steer the rocket during its ascent.

Boosted by the power of twin solid fuel strap-on boosters and a single RS-68 main engine powered by liquid hydrogen and oxygen, the rocket, built by Unites Launch Alliance, roared skyward on a brilliant tongue of flame and smoke visible throughout central Florida, quickly rolling about onto a 95 degree flight azimuth as it arced over the Atlantic Ocean.

Accelerating through the speed of sound at T-plus 47 seconds, the rocket reached the point of maximum aerodynamic stress a minute into flight. The two GEM-60 solid rocket boosters burned out 94 seconds after launch and were jettisoned to fall back into the ocean.

The core stage main engine shut down 4 minutes and 26 seconds into flight, followed by stage 1/2 separation and ignition of the upper stage RL-10 engine 21 seconds later.

The upper stage performed three engine firings during tonight's four hour mission. The cryogenic stage cutoff to mark the end of the first engine burn at T-plus 12 minutes ,37 seconds. The engine restarted at T+32:05 after a 10 and a half minute coast period for a second 4-minute burn.

The vehicle then coasted for three hours and 43 minutes before starting up again for a short, 55 second burn to place the upper stage and GOES-P into the proper location for release, which occurred 10 and a half minutes later.

The Delta upper stage placed $499 million GOES-P into a geostationary transfer orbit with an apogee, or high point, 18,994 nautical miles above Earth and a perigee 3,576 miles high inclined 12 degrees to the Equator.

This was the third GOES spacecraft launched on a Delta IV rocket.

"Only 89 calendar days have passed since our last launch making this campaign the shortest time between two consecutive Delta IV launches from the same pad," said Capt. John "JJ" McAfee, 5th Space Launch Squadron, who served as Delta IV Flight Mission Lead. "Over the holiday season and through this successful launch, the Delta launch team overcame numerous challenges, streamlined our processes, and elevated our partnerships to the next level."

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are actively engaged in a cooperative program to expand the existing GOES system, beginning with the launch of the GOES-N satellite. Goddard is responsible for procuring, developing, and testing the spacecraft, instruments, and unique ground equipment for the next generation of Earth-observation satellites.

NOAA is responsible for the overall program, funding, system in-orbit operation, and identification of satellite replacement needs.

GOES-P will provide enhanced weather monitoring and prediction capability, communications subsystems to rebroadcast data, and space environmental monitoring instruments and sensors from an operational orbital slot of 75 deg or 135 deg West.

The information sent by GOES spacecraft is used for a host of applications, including weather monitoring and prediction models, ocean temperatures and moisture locations, climate studies, cryosphere - ice, snow, glaciers - detection and extent, land temperatures and crop conditions, and hazards detection.

"GOES are the backbone of NOAA's severe weather forecasts, monitoring fast-changing conditions in the atmosphere that spawn hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and other hazards," said Steve Kirkner, GOES program manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The three-axis Boeing 601 body-stabilized spacecraft design is equipped to enable the GOES-P primary sensors to "stare" at Earth, allowing the instruments to continuously image clouds and monitor Earth's surface and atmospheric temperatures.

GOES-P is comprised of instruments used for observing both terrestrial and deep space weather conditions.

The terrestrial imager is a multispectral five-channel instrument that produces visible and infrared images of Earth's surface, oceans, cloud cover, and severe storm developments.

The multispectral sounder provides vertical temperature and moisture profiles of the atmosphere, augmenting data from the imager. Sounder data are also used in computer models, which produce mid- and long-range weather forecasts.

In addition to the terrestrial imager, GOES-P incorporates a sophisticated solar X-ray imager that will monitor the Sun's X-rays for the early detection of solar flares and other phenomena. This early warning is important because solar flares affect not only the safety of humans in high-altitude missions, such as human spaceflight, but also military and commercial satellite communications.

"The SXI is improving our forecasts and warnings for solar disturbances, protecting billions of dollars worth of commercial and government assets in space and on the ground, and lessening the brunt of power surges for the satellite-based electronics and communications industry," said Tom Bodgan, director of NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in Boulder, Colo.

The GOES-P satellite is equipped with space environmental monitoring instruments, which monitor X-rays, extreme ultraviolet, and particle emissions-including solar protons, alpha particles, and electrons. These space environmental monitoring instruments include a magnetometer that samples the Earth's magnetosphere.

GOES-P will be redesignated GOES-15 following an on-orbit checkout period of approximately 6 months. It will be placed in an orbital slot for long-term storage, ready to be brought into service on short notice should one of the existing spacecraft unexpectedly fail.

NOAA regularly stores new spacecraft on orbit, rather than launching them when needed for active service. This is both cheaper than ground storage and also gives the agency the ability to bring new spacecraft into service on very short notice when other satellites fail.

The costs of on-orbit storage are only the costs of using any of the satellite expendables such as fuel or battery power and the degradation of thermal surfaces. Since the expendables are sized to exceed the 10-year mission-required life, including 2 years of on-orbit storage, there is no discernable cost involved with on-orbit storage, compared to approximately $3 million per year to store a satellite in a ground facility.

(The Spacearium / SpaceflightNews.net)