WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

At Cape Canaveral Air Station, workers secure a Centaur upper stage on a transporter after offloading it from a U.S. Air Force C-5c (right). After being mated with the Atlas IIA lower stage, the rocket is scheduled to launch the NASA GOES-L satellite from Launch Pad 36B on May 15. Once in orbit, the satellite will become GOES-11, joining GOES-8, GOES-9 and GOES-10 in space. The fourth of a new advanced series of geostationary weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), GOES-L is a three-axis inertially stabilized spacecraft that will provide pictures and perform atmospheric sounding at the same time. Once launched, the satellite will undergo checkout and then provide backup capabilities for the existing, aging operational satellites.