How GOES Works

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hello and welcome to the goes-t virtual
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social i'm jasmine hopkins with nasa
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communications and we are at kennedy
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space center in front of the iconic
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countdown clock because we are counting
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down to the mission of the geostationary
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operational environmental satellite - T
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also known as goes-t this is a noaa
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mission that stands for the national
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oceanic and atmospheric administration
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and this mission is also being launched
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by nasa's launch services program so
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joining me here to talk more about that
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is andy sokol vehicle systems engineer
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for nasa's launch services program
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welcome andy thank you jasmine can you
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tell me a little bit about your role in
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this mission sure well i'm the vehicle
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systems engineer for launch services so
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what i do i'm sort of like your primary
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doctor for the rocket so i'm going to
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watch the rocket as it as it grows up
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you know during its manufacturing and
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assembly and transport and stacking and
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and getting it all ready so that when
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the spacecraft arrives
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we can mate them up and i'll consult
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with our you know looks like your doctor
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would i'll consult with a team of
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specialists if we have any specific
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issues we need to look at so that when
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launch day comes we know that the rocket
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has a clean bill of health it's all
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grown up and it's ready to go out and
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fulfill its life purpose of launching
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the spacecraft into space perfect that's
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a great example your primary care doctor
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so as the vehicle assistant engineer for
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the launch services program what will
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you be doing on launch day so on launch
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day i'm actually the assistant chief
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engineer so i'll be on a console next to
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the chief engineer and we'll be
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monitoring the countdown we'll be
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keeping track of any issues that come up
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i'll help the chief engineer keep track
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of those i'll pull our our technical
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team to make sure that they're
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comfortable and and
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happy with the status and the health of
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the rocket going into launch
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that's exciting so you're gonna be busy
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we have a couple more questions for you
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uh how does the launch services program
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work with your partners at noaa and
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space launch delta 45 and united launch
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alliance wow well jasmine there's a lot
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of teams that really
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come together on launch day to make
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launch happen so those are some you know
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you also have the folks like the range
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safety folks you have the spacecraft
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team you have the
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tracking and data relay folks we have
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the launch services program technical
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team the ula technical team and all
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those teams are working together to come
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on launch day to make sure that
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everything's there i mean even our
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public affairs folks i mean everyone has
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a critical role to play and it's amazing
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on launch day to see all those teams and
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all that teamwork culminate in a
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beautiful launch that you know it's just
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really a testament to how all those
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teams can work together within those
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teams and together with the other teams
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that is awesome andy and we are glad to
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be partnering with you as well so is
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there a big button you push to launch
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the rocket who makes that final decision
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can you tell us i love there's no big
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button but i do love the visual so no
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usually the last couple of minutes of
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the countdown are in control of the
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computer because there's so much
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happening in those last few minutes and
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there's so many there's so much
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real-time data coming in to keep track
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of and there's all this pre-established
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limits so the computers are watching all
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that happen now there's still humans in
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the loop and if they see anything that
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they're concerned about they can still
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still stop it but you know the the
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figurative button pushing is actually
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done by the computer now as far as who
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makes the call um you know again all
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those experts that we talked about
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previously you know they're all giving
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their go
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along the way during the countdown and
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all those goes kind of tree up to a key
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couple of people so on the nasa side all
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of our goes tree up to the nasa launch
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director and the launch director will
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then give that go over to united launch
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alliance who's also been polling their
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team before they can give the final
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handoff to the computer for the final
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countdown that is so exciting so we're
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glad to know that lsp will be in that
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poll to say go for launch when it's time
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for goes-t
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thank you so much andy for joining us
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and we are hashtag ready2gos
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thank you thanks for watching all right
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now we're going to bring on pam sullivan
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we're going to switch you guys out we're
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going to swap some mics over here
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and pam sullivan is the manager for the
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goes-r program from noaa we're going to
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get her mic'd up and then we're going to
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have her position right here in front of
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our top down
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we need a mic test are we good all right
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i had diet coke for breakfast
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no that's a balanced breakfast diet coke
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not too bad well welcome pam thank you
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so much for joining us here hi jasmine
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thanks for having me of course of course
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it is nice and sunny here at kennedy
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space center again we are in front of
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this iconic countdown clock for the
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goes-t mission we have a couple
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questions for pam sullivan manager of
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the goes-r program so what are the goes
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satellites
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well the goes-r satellites are the most
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sophisticated machines ever built for
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monitoring weather and the environment
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that is exciting
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what will the goes-t satellite do once
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it is in orbit and how will people use
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that data yeah so well after we're on
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orbit after the launch vehicle takes us
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up to geostationary transfer orbit the
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rock the spacecraft itself
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lifts itself the rest of the way up to
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geostationary orbit
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once we're there we deploy a lot of the
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uh the solar array and the antennas that
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we had to fold up to get inside the
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rocket we deploy them we turn on the
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electronics uh we open the aperture
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doors on the instruments and then take
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the first picture what we call first
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light um and so that those first light
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pictures will happen sometime in may
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but then we actually spend a few more
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months checking out the instrument we
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need to calibrate it make sure it's
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working the way we intended and so by
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july we should actually be flowing our
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data to users
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and so
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people will be able to start using the
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data at that point
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but in terms of what people do with the
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data
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the gozar satellites are actually the
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swiss army knife of
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of satellites really in terms of all the
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instruments they have and all the
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channels the things that they can see
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is just amazing it's from
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you know clouds and snow
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flooding fires smoke uh volcanic
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volcanic emissions
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and then it's got space weather
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instruments that can see the the sun
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can measure magnetic fields and particle
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flux so
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almost any dangerous thing that's
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happening in the environment the goes-r
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satellites will know about
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and in terms of the applications they're
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really wide
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really widespread the probably the most
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familiar to folks is for watching
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hurricanes or other severe storms so
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forecasters use the data to let us know
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if there's a storm coming our way but
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they also use it for mundane weather
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just to know if it's going to be cloudy
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or sunny hot or cold where you are
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but then industries use it too you know
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the energy industry uses our forecasts
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to
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uh tell how much energy their customers
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are going to need so that they're
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producing the right amount
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transport companies use it to make sure
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that their planes and ships and trucks
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don't end up in dangerous conditions
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fire managers use it
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sometimes to detect fires but once a
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wildfire started they use the data to
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see where the wildfire might spread
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based on winds and other conditions so
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that they can safely deploy
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firefighters around it
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and then our space weather instruments
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also use for forecasts different kinds
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of forecasts but they forecast things
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like whether there'll be trouble with
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radio signals or the gps signals or
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whether there'll be conditions that are
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actually dangerous for space tourists
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wow that is exciting so i like your
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example of the swiss army knife and i
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would like to say that the ghost
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satellites honestly that's that's
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life-saving science that they're doing
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because we are not unfamiliar with
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hurricanes here in florida so that is
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very exciting uh one more question for
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you
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when we say the goes-t
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satellite is part of the goes-r series
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what does that mean
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yeah well ghost tea is part of a very
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long family of goes satellites
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the goes-r series is the most recent
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generation but really the first go
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satellite was launched in 1975
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that was goes one
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so the fifth generation goes-r
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is a series of four satellites we tend
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to build them in blocks because we know
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we're going to need more than one of
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them so goes-r has r s t and u uh so t
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is obviously the third uh of that uh and
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so the um
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uh if uh if all things go well um ghost
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t will be the uh 19th satellite go
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satellite that's launched and the 18th
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that actually goes into operational
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service wow that is exciting almost 50
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years of science that the go satellites
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are doing i thank you so much for
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joining us today pam sullivan again we
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ask that you continue to follow along
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with the goes team mission using
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ready to goes thank you