TECH - SpaceX Employs Falcon Heavy For First Time In 2024 To Send NOAA's GOES-U Weather Satellite To Space | Benzinga
Elon Musk‘s SpaceX had its first Falcon Heavy launch this year on Tuesday, following over 50 launches of its workhorse Falcon 9 vehicle and multiple flight tests for its ambitious Starship launch vehicle.
What Happened: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket launched the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) GOES-U mission to a geostationary orbit from Florida on Tuesday at 5:26 p.m. ET.
GOES-U is among the agency’s most sophisticated Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) series. It will help weather forecasters with high-resolution imagery while also aiding early detection of severe weather and tropical cyclones. The environmental monitoring satellite constellation is planned to operate into the 2030s, NASA said.
Why It Matters: “As communities across the U.S. and the world feel the effects of extreme weather, satellites like GOES-U ...