On Oct. 16, 1975, NASA launched the first operational GOES satellite! GOES A was the first in a series of weather satellites that NASA jointly operated with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The name is short for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. GOES-A launched on a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral.
GOES satellites all have a geostationary orbit, which means they always face the same part of Earth — in this case, the Indian Ocean. Once GOES A became operational, it was renamed GOES-1.
The GOES satellite fleet has grown over the years, and is a critical link in the chain of satellites tracking Earth’s weather from space. In 2018, NASA and NOAA launched GOES S/GOES-17, the latest satellite in the fleet.
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