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CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FL (July 23, 2001) - A Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIA-Centaur rocket successfully launched the GOES-M weather satellite from Launch Pad 36A at 3:23 a.m. EDT today. Launch was originally scheduled for July 15 but was postponed until July 22 to allow replacement of an electronic component aboard the rocket. Launch attempt on July 22 was scrubbed when lightning struck adjacent Launch Pad 36B during launch preparations. Mandatory launch commit criteria require that all systems be checked following a direct lightning strike on the launch complex, even though lightning did not strike the launch pad that actually supported this launch. This process resulted in a 24-hour delay of the launch. Today's launch was delayed about 21 minutes to allow radar at the Antigua Tracking Station to be restored following an outage and to allow a boat to move out of the launch danger area in offshore Atlantic waters.

GOES-M (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) is designed to monitor hurricanes, severe thunderstorms, flash floods and other severe weather. Real-time weather data gathered by GOES satellites, combined with data from Doppler radar and automated surface observing systems, helps weather forecasters provide better warnings of severe weather. GOES-M also has the ability to monitor and forecast turbulent solar events, which is valuable to operators and users of military and civilian radio and satellite communications systems, navigation systems and power networks, as well as to astronauts, high-altitude aviators and scientists. The satellite is equipped with the first operational Solar X-ray Imager to detect solar storms. The GOES-M Solar X-ray Imager will take a full-disk image of the Sun's atmosphere once every minute. The images will be used by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Air Force to monitor and forecast solar flares, coronal mass ejections, coronal holes and active regions. These features are the dominant sources of disturbances in space weather that lead to geomagnetic storms.

The United States operates two GOES meteorological satellites in geostationary orbit 22,300 miles over the Equator, one over the East Coast and one over the West Coast. The GOES-10 spacecraft, launched in 1997, is currently overlooking the West Coast out into the Pacific Ocean including Hawaii. GOES-8, launched in 1994, is overlooking the East Coast out into the Atlantic Ocean. GOES-M will be stored on orbit ready for operation when needed as a replacement for GOES-8 or GOES-10. It joins GOES-11, also in storage. Once placed in its proper orbit, GOES-M will be redesignated GOES-12.

Images taken by the GOES-M Solar X-ray Imager will be available in real time via the Internet at: