Posted: Wed, May 5, 2004, 9:22 AM ET (1322 GMT)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will retire a 10-year-old weather satellite on Wednesday, the agency announced this week. The GOES-8 satellite, launched in April 1994, will be boosted into a graveyard orbit 350 kilometers above geosynchronous orbit, where it will be deactivated. The satellite had been in "orbital storage mode" since last year, when it was replaced by the newer GOES-12 satellite. NOAA did not specify if technical problems or other issued led it to decide to deactivate the satellite now. The first in a new series of GOES weather satellite, GOES-N, is scheduled for launch in December.

Related Links:

•  AP article
•  NOAA press release