SpaceX Will Launch Major Weather Satellite With $153 Million From NASA

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has received a $152.5 million federal contract to launch an vital new climate satellite tv for pc into house.

On Friday, NASA announced that it had chosen the agency’s Falcon Heavy heavy-lift launch rocket to move the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-U (GOES-U) into geostationary orbit tens of hundreds of miles into house. Once it’s up there, the satellite tv for pc will accumulate pictures and atmospheric measurements of climate, oceans, and environmental methods, map out lightning in actual time, and enhance monitoring for photo voltaic exercise and house climate.

GOES-U’s launch will mark the fourth and ultimate satellite tv for pc of the GOES-R sequence, the primary of which was launched in 2016. A collaboration between NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it’s probably the most superior fleet of climate satellites the U.S. runs, offering an unparalleled take a look at Earth. While they’re on the bottom, the satellites are recognized by letters. Once in orbit, although, they’ll tackle a numbered title. (GOES-U would be the nineteenth GOES satellite tv for pc and presumably be GOES-19.)

The launch, which is scheduled to happen in April 2024 from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, is an enormous win for SpaceX. It comes after competing spacecraft launch service supplier United Launch Alliance withdrew its bid. In 2019, ULA was awarded a smaller contract to launch the third satellite tv for pc in GOES-R sequence generally known as GOES-T (sure, it’s quite a lot of GOES), and can achieve this in January 2022. But the corporate mentioned it didn’t have any applicable autos accessible for the fourth mission, opening the door for SpaceX to step in.

Missions like these are vital alternatives to be taught extra about each Earth and house. The new GOES satellite tv for pc, as an illustration, is predicted to enhance climate forecasting at a time when excessive climate is turning into all of the extra frequent and erratic, that means it may really save lives. Less vital however nonetheless cool is that it’ll additionally present attractive pictures of our planet.

SpaceX has been racking up contracts for Falcon Heavy. In July, NASA chose the firm to ship the Falcon Heavy rocket to one in all Jupiter’s moons to search for indicators of aquatic alien life, and in April, NASA contractor Astrobiotic additionally picked the firm to ship a NASA lunar lander to the moon’s yet-unexplored south pole in late 2023. The agency makes boatloads of money from these contracts, which supplies Musk, a person already recognized for screwed-up labor practices, extra energy. While placing a satellite tv for pc in house for HD climate observations is undoubtedly cool, maybe there’s a extra democratic option to get future ones up there.