Nasa and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have appointed a board to investigate a glitch onboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 17 satellite.
Chaired by Nasa Langley Research Center chief engineer David McGowan, the board will include representatives from the agency’s Ames Research Center, Glenn Research Center and Johnson Space Cente.
The board will investigate the anomaly that occurred with GOES-17 satellite’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument.
During the post-launch testing of ABI, it was found that the instrument’s infrared detectors could not be maintained at their required operating temperatures under certain seasonal and orbital conditions.
This anomaly caused the instrument to lose around 3% of its availability throughout the year.
In a statement, Nasa said: “Nasa and NOAA senior leadership have determined the need to convene the mishap investigation board, which will work to determine the root or proximate cause of the anomaly and identify actions to prevent occurrences on future satellites.
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By GlobalData“The board will begin its work as soon as possible.”
GOES-17, the second in NOAA’s GOES-R series of four next-generation weather satellites, was launched into space in March from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, US.
Two additional satellites GOES-T and GOES-U are currently being developed with the aim of providing more timely and accurate weather forecasts and warnings.
NOAA, Nasa and industry partners are currently involved in the development of the GOES-R series satellites.
