Boeing Co. has announced that the third of three Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) built for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has completed testing designed to ensure the spacecraft’s operation.

GOES-P underwent a battery of tests to examine how its instruments will operate under extreme temperatures found in deep space. The thermal vacuum chamber test temperatures ranged from minus 292F to 220F; those tests followed a series of vibration and acoustic tests and confirmed the satellite’s system hardiness for launch and orbit.

GOES-P remains on schedule for completion later this year and could be launched as early as 2008. GOES-O is in storage awaiting launch in 2007. Boeing’s GOES-N, now operating as GOES-13, was placed into orbit in May aboard a Boeing Delta 4 vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The new GOES satellites offer NOAA and NASA scientists more accurate prediction and tracking of severe storms and other weather phenomena, resulting in earlier and more precise warnings to the public in the event of tornadoes, flash floods, hail storms and hurricanes.