RELEASE NO: 97-68

GOES 10 STATUS REPORT

The GOES-10 weather satellite, successfully launched on April 25, 1997, has been placed in a state of safe, stable attitude and thermal control following an anomaly where the system controlling the spacecraft solar array lost its ability to keep the array locked on the Sun. All other spacecraft systems are performing well.

The GOES-10 spacecraft is procured, launched and checked out by NASA for its operator, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and is manufactured by Space Systems Loral (SSL).

The array has stopped tracking the Sun on three occasions. The first two times, the array lost Sun-lock for a minute or two, and then resumed normal tracking. On May 27, the most recent occurrence, the array stopped and did not recover. Engineers took the precautionary steps of placing the spacecraft in safe mode. Engineers from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., supported by NOAA, and SSL are developing troubleshooting plans to investigate the problem with the solar array's pointing system.

Because GOES-10 is planned to be NOAA's on-orbit spare, and not needed for operational use, "we are being very cautious and thorough in our analysis and troubleshooting efforts," said NASA GOES Project Manager Marty Davis. "The spacecraft is safe and stable."

Preparations for performance testing of the primary imaging systems on the spacecraft are currently scheduled to begin in late June and continue into early July. Following a complete verification of all spacecraft systems, the GOES-10 spacecraft will be placed in on-orbit storage able to be called into service by NOAA when needed. Storage of the spacecraft is scheduled to begin in mid-August.

Future status reports will be issued as conditions warrant. Status of the GOES spacecraft can also be found on the GOES Project home page at

http://climate.gsfc.nasa.gov/~chesters/goesproject.html or

http://www.nnic.noaa.gov/SOCC/SOCC_Home.html.