Posted: Sat, Mar 3, 2018, 2:11 PM ET (1911 GMT)
A next-generation weather satellite is in orbit after a successful launch Thursday afternoon. An Atlas 5 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on schedule at 5:02 p.m. Eastern and released the GOES-S weather satellite into geostationary transfer orbit about three and a half hours later. GOES-S, which will be renamed GOES-17, will enter service later this year at 135 degrees west in GEO. It is the second in a new generation of four weather satellites that provide a "quantum leap" in weather monitoring and forecasting abilities.
