This was NOAA's constellation before GOES-16 moved into position as GOES-East and retired GOES-13. NOAA's future constellation may include hosted payloads and small satellites in low Earth orbit. Credit: NOAA

NOAA’s future constellation: large and small satellites in variety of orbits

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NOAA's future constellation could include a mix of large government-owned and government-operated satellites, imaging instruments hosted on commercial satellites, small satellites in low Earth orbit and data purchased from commercial firms.

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During Hurricane Harvey, which caused record flooding in Houston, emergency managers relied on data from stream gauges rebroadcast through geostationary weather satellites. This image of Hurricane Harvey was captured Aug. 16 by the Advanced Baseline Imager on GOES-16. Credit: NOAA

Aerospace Corp. warns of terrestrial interference with critical satellite services

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Growing demand by terrestrial wireless firms threatens the federal government’s exclusive use of spectrum traditionally reserved for NOAA satellite broadcasts to emergency managers, meteorologists and researchers.

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Through GOES Rebroadcast, NOAA transmits full-resolution calibrated images and data to customers, like the images from Harris Corp.'s Advanced Baseline Imager shown here. This is the type of service that could be handled by commercial communications firms in the future. Credit: Harris

NOAA could slash future communications costs if commercial services pan out

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The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency may be able to slash the cost of transmitting data from its next generation of weather satellites by turning to commercial communications services.

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Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians are assembling NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) T at the company's Littleton, Colorado facility in preparation for launch in late 2020. Credit: Lockheed Martin

NOAA prepares GOES-S for launch as Lockheed Martin builds successors

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As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration prepares for the March 1 launch of its next Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) S on an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, prime contractor Lockheed Martin is working in Denver on its successors GOES-T and GOES-U.

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