A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket roared from Space Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Saturday evening, to place a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-O, into orbit.

Ironically, that liftoff of the weather-watching satellite earlier had been delayed by weather, pesky thunderstorms within 10 miles of the pad that menaced the rocket.

But finally, a day late, weather permitted the launch at 6:51 p.m. ET Saturday night.

ULA is a joint venture of The Boeing Co. [BA] and Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT], with the Delta IV being a Boeing design.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-O satellite will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world. The satellite is the second to be launched in the GOES-N series of geostationary environmental weather satellites.

"All indications are that GOES-O is in a normal orbit, with all spacecraft systems functioning properly," stated Andre Dress, GOES deputy project manager at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We are proud of our support teams and pleased with the performance of the Delta IV launch vehicle."

Approximately 4 hours and 21 minutes after launch, the spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle. The Universal Space Network Western Australia tracking site in Dongara monitored the spacecraft separation.

On July 7, GOES-O will be placed in its final orbit and renamed GOES-14. Approximately 24 days after launch, Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems will turn engineering control over to NASA.

About five months later, NASA will transfer operational control of GOES-14 to NOAA. The satellite will be checked out, stored in orbit and available for activation should one of the operational GOES satellites degrade or exhaust its fuel.

NASA contracted with Boeing to build and launch the GOES-O spacecraft.

The NASA Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., supported the launch in an advisory role. NOAA manages the GOES program, establishes requirements, provides all funding and distributes environmental satellite data for the United States.

Goddard procures and manages the design, development and launch of the satellites for NOAA on a cost-reimbursable basis.

Media Briefing

In a media briefing, NASA and ULA-Boeing officials detailed why the GOES spacecraft series is critical.

Over any lengthy period, some 35 million people are threatened by hurricanes and tornadoes, so it is vital to have GOES satellites provide a view of exactly where those dangerous weather systems are, and where they are headed.

GOES-O, a few years after it becomes GOES-14, will aid forecasters by providing higher resolution pictures, climate tracking and climate measuring. But it won’t swing into action until GOES-11 and -12 reach the end of life. Those birds will be used as long as possible. For GOES-O, that might mean five years in orbit in storage, awaiting the green light, and then five years of operations, or more likely, seven to eight years of work.

As it peers down at Earth and constantly shifting weather systems, the GOES bird also will look back over its shoulder to monitor space weather by using a solar imager, spotting solar flares that can cause problems for power grids and other systems on Earth.

The launch and ascent of the satellite to its high-flying orbit involved having the rocket coast at times, then restart the engine.

Also, to keep the satellite from overheating from the rays of the sun, the Delta performed a bar-b-que roll, to keep the temperature even.

Finally, there came a small roll and separation of GOES-O from the rocket.

It will take a dozen days of maneuvers to circularize the orbit fully.

Technicians will learn whether the GOES-O cameras survived launch and ascent on July 27, when the spacecraft will beam back its first full image from space.

This is the seventh GOES satellite that Boeing has built and launched. It was flown from a Boeing factory in El Segundo, Calif., to the Cape on a Boeing C-17 transport plane.