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GOES-12 weather satellite fails during adjustment

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

GOES-12 design
GOES-12 full disk image

The weather satellite GOES-12, which provides most of the weather pictures for the United States, became unusable on Tuesday, December 4. The satellite is positioned in geostationary orbit over the Amazon. A normal station-keeping maneuver to adjust its location was not completed as usual and services could not be continued.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates the satellites for its National Weather Service (NWS). NOAA's satellite division intends to attempt Wednesday night to return GOES-12 to normal mode. The satellite is in its "safe" mode, which is used to protect it until problems can be identified and repaired. It is properly oriented toward the Sun so it will have full electrical power for further commands.

The GOES-10 satellite, located slightly further east, has been taken from South American coverage and is providing North American service. GOES-13 is in orbital storage in case it is needed for replacing a failed satellite.


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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
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