Second of NOAA’s “high-definition” weather satellites ready for launch

The second satellite in a quartet of new NOAA weather observatories is awaiting liftoff Thursday aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, heading for a position 22,000 miles from Earth to scan the western United States and Pacific Ocean for typhoons, wildfires and fog. The GOES-S weather satellite, to be renamed GOES-17 once in orbit, is bolted on top of a 197-foot-tall (60-meter) Atlas 5 rocket set for launch from Cape Canaveral at 5:02 p.m. EST (2202 GMT) Thursday. The launch window extends for two hours, and the official weather outlook calls for an 80 percent probability of favorable conditions. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Mar 1)