When do we start getting

[mobilebay]

the satellite eclipse? I know some time during the Summer we get that Satellite blackout for about 3 hours at night. I just can't remember when it starts.

[senorpepr]

From the NWS Southern Region GOES Satellite FAQs

Since GOES is in a geosynchronous orbit, the sun will yearly traverse a +/- 23.5 degree angle perpendicular to the Earth's equator (GOES orbit plane). As a result, near the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes the Earth disk will periodically occult the sun, from a GOES perspective. Essentially, there are two eclipse seasons for each GOES spacecraft. Each eclipse season spans a 48-day period, symmetric around the equinox and the sun occultation lasts for a maximum of 72 minutes/day during the equinox. Each GOES spacecraft utilizes a solar array that converts sunlight into electricity in order to power the satellite. Each day during the eclipse season the sun is blocked by the Earth and sunlight is not available to the GOES solar array. Therefore, the energy needed to power the instruments is not available and the instruments are powered off. There is typically a 0-3 hour outage of imagery each day as GOES progresses through eclipse season. The maximum outage of 3 hours will occur at or near the equinox.

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

I thought we where sending a satellite out there to loss this.

[senorpepr]

I thought we where sending a satellite out there to loss this.

I wouldn't expect a full use of this satellite for some time. We still have a few more years of eclipses to deal with...

[mobilebay]

I know it's usually right in the heart of the Hurricane Season. In fact, I remember several times when we was relying on Recon reports during a threatening storm, because the system was still out of Radar range, and the Satellite images was unavailable. That is so frustrating when you have a monster like Ivan/Charley out in the Atlantic basin. I know I'm a little spoiled. I remember in the old days when I would have to wait for the 10PM News to see one grainy satellite image. Boy times have changed and the Internet/TWC has spoiled us.

[HurricaneJoe22]

that's a good time for you get some shut eye.

[Brent]

I know it happened last year right in the middle of Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

[dhweather]

The new GOES N satellite, when put into orbit later this year, will be in
standby mode until one of the existing satellites fail.

[CentralFlGal]

Sort of related, since it's a satellite...

What happens when you send one up and can't find it?

Search begins for missing solar sail spacecraft By Gina Keating
Wed Jun 22, 8:49 AM ET

PASADENA, Calif (Reuters) - A hunt began on Wednesday for a privately funded experimental spacecraft that appeared to have gone off course shortly after it was launched from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea a day earlier.

Cosmos 1, the first solar sail-powered spacecraft, appeared to be "alive" and sending signals to tracking stations but could be in a lower orbit than planned, said mission backers at the Planetary Society in Pasadena, California.

"We have no evidence that anything is wrong with the spacecraft at all," said Bruce Betts, the Planetary Society's director of projects, late on Tuesday.

But there were conflicting reports. Russia's Itar-Tass and Interfax news agencies quoted an unnamed Russian space agency source as saying that the craft had crashed near a remote island in the Barents Sea close to where it had been launched.

Members of the Planetary Society, the world's largest private space advocacy group, hoped the mission would show that a group of space enthusiasts could kick-start a race to the stars on a shoestring budget of $4 million.

The mission's planners conceived of the first solar-sail spacecraft, and were running the program out of Moscow and a 1920s bungalow in Pasadena.

Their brainchild, Cosmos 1 blasted off in a converted Russian ballistic missile from the Barents Sea on Tuesday. But the disc-shaped craft lost contact with its controller almost immediately. For several hours, Cosmos 1 was believed lost.

SAILING ON SUNLIGHT

But weak signals received by tracking stations in the Pacific Ocean, Russia and the Czech Republic seemed to show that Cosmos 1 had made it into orbit.

Rest of story at
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050622/sc_nm/space_cosmos_dc_15;_ylt=ApttOyq.ZbMR7plXMMn4SprlmlUA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl