A new weather satellite launched from Cape Canaveral Thursday at 5:02 p.m.
The eagle-eyed satellite, launched as a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA, will help track wildfires, cyclones, fog and storms that threaten the western U.S., as well as give researchers a view of that region in unprecedented detail.
GOES-S (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S), which will be renamed GOES-West once it takes up its final orbit, will combine forces with GOES-East to provide a full picture of the weather over the United States, according to space.com. It will reportedly be the second high-tech satellite to launch in the GOES-R series.
