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WASHINGTON – NASA has selected SpaceX to launch the latest in a series of geostationary weather satellites that were previously launched by the United Launch Alliance.
NASA announced on September 10 that it had awarded a contract to SpaceX for the Falcon Heavy launch of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) U. The launch is scheduled for April 2024 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The agency said the contract is valued at $ 152.5 million.
GOES-U is the fourth and final satellite in the GOES-R series of satellites, which monitors terrestrial and space weather from a geostationary orbit. GOES-R was launched in November 2016 and was renamed GOES-16, operating from the GOES East location at 75 degrees West in GEO. GOES-S was launched in March 2018 and became GOES-17, operating from the GOES West slot at 137 degrees West. GOES-T is slated for launch in January 2022 and will replace GOES-17 due to issues with that satellite’s primary instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager.
GOES-R and GOES-S have each been launched on an Atlas 5, and GOES-T is slated to launch on an Atlas 5. NASA’s contract announcement did not reveal the reason for SpaceX’s selection to launch. GOES-U. The value of the GOES-U contract is slightly lower than the award made to ULA in December 2019 for the launch of GOES-T, $ 165.7 million.
ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said the company withdrew its GOES-U launch offer because no Atlas 5 vehicles were available. “All of the remaining 29 rockets were sold to customers for future launches, so we had to withdraw our offer for NASA’s GOES-U launch service,” she said.
ULA is preparing to switch to the Vulcan Centaur rocket, which is now slated for inaugural launch in 2022. Tory Bruno, managing director of ULA, recently said the company is no longer offering the Atlas 5 after a final round of contracts announced earlier this year. , such as an order for nine Atlas 5 launches by Amazon in April to launch part of its broadband constellation Project Kuiper.
During a panel at the Satellite 2021 conference on September 9, Bruno said the company did not expect to order additional Russian-built RD-180 engines used in the first stage of the Atlas 5. “J ‘bought all the RD-180s we need for the Atlas 5, ”he said. “There are 29 Atlas left. All of these RD-180s are safely installed in a warehouse in Alabama. I think this is more than what I need for a smooth transition to Vulcan.
GOES-U’s victory adds to a growing backlog of Falcon Heavy launches for SpaceX. In July, NASA awarded SpaceX a contract to launch the Europa Clipper mission to the icy and potentially habitable moon of Jupiter, also scheduled for 2024. Other NASA awards include the asteroid mission Psyche, both first elements of the lunar gateway and the Gateway Logistics Services Contract, where SpaceX will use the Falcon Heavy for two launches of the Dragon XL spacecraft to transport cargo to the lunar gateway.
SpaceX also won a Falcon Heavy contract with Astrobotic in April to launch its Griffin lunar lander carrying NASA’s VIPER rover as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Falcon Heavy is part of SpaceX’s National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract awarded in August 2020, making the vehicle eligible for future national security launches.
Falcon Heavy has been launched three times, all successfully, but the last launch was Space Test Program 2 mission in June 2019. Falcon Heavy’s next launch, as part of a designated US Space Force mission USSF- 44, is scheduled for October 10 at the earliest. 9.
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