NOAA retires NOAA-16 polar satellite

After more than 13 years of helping predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced today it has turned off the NOAA-16 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES). It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a planned lifespan of three to five years. NOAA-16 was launched in 2000 and replaced by NOAA-18 as the primary POES satellite in 2005. The shutdown will result in no data gap, as NOAA-16 was being used as a back-up satellite. NOAA will continue operating multiple POES spacecraft - NOAA-15, NOAA-18 and NOAA-19 - in addition to Suomi NPP, which is now NOAA's primary operational polar satellite. More

(Source: WTAJ - Jun 10)