NOAA’s GOES-17 Satellite Reaches Final Location, Sends Back Awesome Images

In order to make accurate weather predictions, NOAA needs weather satellites in orbit to peer down at Earth. Until recently, the agency was making do with very old hardware from the 1990s, but it has since started launching the much improved GOES-R satellites. GOES-17 launched in March of this year, and it sent back a few images shortly after that. Now, it’s finally reached its final destination over the Pacific Ocean, and it’s beaming back some stunning images and lots of atmospheric data. GOES-17 reached orbit with the help of a ULA Atlas-V rocket. After launch, the satellite was at an altitude of 22,300 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers), but it was looking down on central and South America. More

(Source: ExtremeTech - Nov 17)