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NOAA’s GOES-U Arrives in Florida for Processing Ahead of Launch

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U (GOES-U), the fourth and final weather-observing and environmental monitoring satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R Series, is now in Florida. The satellite landed on Tuesday, Jan. 23, in a United States Air Force C-5M Super Galaxy cargo plane at the Launch and Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. 

Data from the environmental monitoring satellite constellation enables forecasters to predict, observe, and track local weather events that affect public safety like thunderstorms, hurricanes, wildfires, and solar storms.  

Teams spent several hours offloading GOES-U then transferring it to the Astrotech Space Operations facility in nearby Titusville where they will process the spacecraft and perform final checkouts as part of launch preparations. 

“GOES is a special circumstance because it’s a series of missions,” said Rex Engelhardt, GOES-U mission manager for NASA’s Launch Services Program. “Knowledge carries over from mission to mission, which makes for a really strong and a very experienced team. To procure and integrate satellites like GOES-U onto commercial rockets, the launch services team understands the requirements of what the satellites are going to need to reach orbit, and that knowledge is critical in bringing additional reliability to the integration process to help ensure success.” 

Fueling will be one of the key steps to readying the spacecraft to operate for 15 years in orbit. Technicians will add about 5,000 pounds of hypergolic propellants to GOES-U, then mate the spacecraft to a payload adapter and encapsulate it in a protective payload fairing as part of launch processing. 

After testing and fueling are complete, the encapsulated spacecraft will move to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy. GOES-U is scheduled to launch no earlier than Tuesday, April 30, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. 

On board GOES-U are seven instruments, including a new Compact Coronagraph-1 (CCOR-1) instrument. As a part of NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On mission, CCOR-1 will observe the Sun’s outermost layer, called the corona, for large explosions of plasma that could produce geomagnetic solar storms. The CCOR-1 instrument will enhance capabilities to provide advance warnings up to four days ahead of these storms that can cause widespread damage to satellites, power grids, and communication and navigation systems. 

The GOES-R Series satellites are planned to operate into the 2030s. Looking forward, NOAA is working with NASA to develop the next generation of geostationary satellites, called Geostationary Extended Observations, which will bring new capabilities in support of U.S. weather, ocean, and climate operations beyond the 2030s. NASA will manage the development of the geostationary satellites and launch them for NOAA. 

“The GOES-R program demonstrates the tremendous value of NASA’s longstanding collaboration with NOAA,” said Renee Falden, program executive in the Joint Agency Satellite Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are taking the best qualities of that collaboration forward into the GeoXO program, which will continue NOAA’s key observations from geostationary orbit while generating new data streams for a broad community of users across the country.” 

NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the GOES-U mission. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center oversees the acquisition of the spacecraft and instruments. Lockheed Martin designs, builds, and tests the GOES-R series satellites. L3Harris Technologies provides the primary instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager, along with the ground system, which includes the antenna system for data reception. 

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Jamie Groh

NASA Shares Newest Results of Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review

NASA released on Tuesday the outcomes of its 2023 Moon to Mars Architecture Concept Review, the agency’s process to build a roadmap for exploration of the solar system for the benefit of humanity.

The Moon to Mars architecture approach incorporates feedback from U.S. industry, academia, international partners, and the NASA workforce. The 2023 Architecture Concept Review refined the existing architecture and strategies for the first crewed missions to Mars, including identifying seven key decisions in development that need to be made early in the process of establishing a plan to send astronauts to the Red Planet.

“Our new documents reflect the progress we’ve made to define a clear approach to exploration and lay out how we’ll incorporate new elements as technologies and capabilities in the U.S. and abroad mature,” said Catherine Koerner, associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This process is ensuring that everything we are doing as an agency and together with our partners is focused on achieving our overarching exploration goals for the benefit of all.”

Newly released documents include the 2023 Architecture Definition Document, a detailed, technical look at NASA’s Moon to Mars architecture approach and process; an executive overview; and 13 white papers about frequently raised topics on NASA’s exploration path.

“Over the last year we’ve been able to refine our process for Moon to Mars architecture concept development to unify the agency,” said Nujoud Merancy, deputy associate administrator for strategy and architecture, NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “Our process in the coming months will focus on addressing gaps in the architecture and further reviewing the decisions the agency needs to make to successfully mount crewed Mars missions.”

In April 2023, NASA shared the inaugural Architecture Definition Document with detailed information about how NASA’s Moon to Mars Objectives, which serve as guideposts for exploration, map to specific architecture elements. The agency hosted workshops to obtain feedback and held an internal concept review late in the year, during which leaders from across NASA came together to discuss architecture needs and refinements. NASA will continue this cadence going forward, refining the architecture each year.

Under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all.

Find NASA’s Moon to Mars architecture documents at:

https://www.nasa.gov/moontomarsarchitecture

-end-

Rachel Kraft 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1100 
rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov

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Abbey A. Donaldson

Axiom Mission 3 Launches to the International Space Station

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft lifts off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. Axiom Space’s Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) is the third all-private astronaut mission to the space station, sending crew members Commander Michael López-Alegría, Pilot Walter Villadei of Italy, Mission Specialist Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey, and ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden into orbit.

The Ax-3 crew will spend about two weeks conducting microgravity research, educational outreach, and commercial activities aboard the space station.

Watch our Axiom Mission 3 launch coverage on NASA+.

Image Credit: NASA/Chris Swanson

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Monika Luabeya

I Am Artemis: Erick Holsonback

Whether he’s advising student robotic competitions or managing production of a powerful, new Moon rocket stage, Erick Holsonback meets technical challenges with enthusiasm.

Holsonback, a Jacobs Technology employee, is subsystem manager for production and launch operations of the exploration upper stage (EUS) for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket. SLS is NASA’s super heavy lift rocket that will launch the agency’s Artemis campaign to the Moon. The exploration upper stage is one of two upgrades to the SLS rocket as it evolves to the Block 1B variant for missions beginning with Artemis IV. Along with the rocket’s new universal stage adapter, the SLS rocket in its Block 1B configuration will be able to send 40% more payload to the Moon in a single launch.

Holsonback’s job stretches from setting up production for the future upper stage at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where it’s built, to preparing it for launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“It’s exciting to be part of a capability that will send more crew and cargo to the Moon in a single launch than any other current rocket,” Holsonback said. “That’s going to make operations in the challenging space environment a lot simpler.”

Growing up in North Georgia, Holsonback remembers wanting to be an astronaut and turning street cars into hot rods. He figured he’d wind up in the auto industry, until Pratt & Whitney offered him a job working on space shuttle main engine turbomachinery straight out of college in 1997. He briefly left the space business but jumped at a chance to get back in with the SLS Program in 2016 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  

“I wanted to come back and do rockets,” he recalled. “It gets in your blood. You’re part of something bigger that just yourself. Through Artemis, we are truly impacting the space program at its foundational level of how we are getting back to the Moon and to Mars.”

Holsonback’s enthusiasm for space challenges doesn’t end at the office door. In his free time, Holsonback has mentored and coached his two daughters’ technology challenge competitions. While the challenge is foremost a robotics contest, Holsonback is proud of the lessons in problem solving, technology, and project management he’s helped impart to the team along the way – which he likens to his NASA job.

You could say Erick Holsonback is working on the future personally as well as professionally, but it’s hard to beat working on a Moon rocket.

“I’ve had some great opportunities with NASA, but my current role is pretty amazing – getting  to be part of building and launching,” he reflected. “I get to play a little part in the overall foundation work that is going to be part of the history of our country for years to come.”

NASA is working to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon under Artemis. SLS is part of NASA’s backbone for deep space exploration, along with the Orion spacecraft, advanced spacesuits and rovers, the Gateway in orbit around the Moon, and commercial human landing systems. SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and supplies to the Moon in a single launch.

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Lee Mohon