GOES-4, known as GOES-D before becoming operational, was a geostationary

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 can be polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asynchronously), or ...

which was operated by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

as part of the

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 ...

system. Launched in 1980, it was used for weather forecasting in the United States, and later in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. Following its retirement it became the first satellite to be sent into a

graveyard orbit A graveyard orbit, also called a junk orbit or disposal orbit, is an orbit that lies away from common operational orbits. One significant graveyard orbit is a supersynchronous orbit well beyond geosynchronous orbit. Some satellites are moved into ...

Limited lifespan

GOES-4 was built by Hughes Space and Communications, and was based around the HS-371

satellite bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus) is the main body and structural component of a satellite or spacecraft, in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are opposed to specially produced satellites. Bus- ...

. At launch it had a mass of , with an expected operational lifespan of around seven years. It was the first HS-371 based GOES satellite.

Launch and orbit

GOES-D was launched using a Delta 3914 carrier rocket flying from Launch Complex 17A 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 statio ...

. The launch occurred at 22:27 GMT on 9 September 1980. The launch successfully placed GOES-D into a

geosynchronous transfer orbit A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into a GTO as an intermediate step f ...

, from which it raised itself to geostationary orbit by means of an onboard Star-27 apogee motor. Its insertion into geostationary orbit occurred at 12:00 on 11 September. Following its insertion into geostationary orbit, GOES-4 was positioned at 98° West. In 1981, it was moved to 135° West, where it remained until 1983 when it was moved to 139° West (1983–1984). In 1985 it was repositioned at 10° West, and later 44° West, where it provided coverage of Europe for

EUMETSAT The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 30 European Member States. EUMETSAT's primary ...

following the failure of the Meteosat-2 spacecraft.

Graveyard orbit

Following the end of its operations over Europe, GOES-4 was retired from service. It became the first spacecraft to be raised out of geosynchronous orbit, into a

for disposal. This was accomplished on 9 November 1988, using remaining propellent in the satellite's station-keeping thrusters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:GOES-4 Spacecraft launched in 1980 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites

Limited lifespan

Launch and orbit

Graveyard orbit

See also

References