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The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NOAA’s GOES-S satellite launched at 5:02 p.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo credit: NASA

Booster ignition and liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 5:02 p.m. EST, from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying NOAA’s GOES-S satellite. The rocket is on its way, carrying NOAA’s second in a series of four next-generation weather satellites. About four minutes into flight, …

The GOES-S countdown is underway toward a liftoff at 5:02 p.m. EST. During the last four minutes of the countdown, the Atlas and Centaur propellant tanks will be brought up to flight pressure, the rocket and spacecraft will be confirmed on internal power, and the Eastern Range and launch managers will perform final status checks. …

The launch countdown has entered a T-4 minute hold. This hold will last 15 minutes. Weather remains at 90 percent chance for favorable weather at liftoff. The constraint for cumulus clouds has been removed.

Good afternoon from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket stands ready for liftoff at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Atlas V will carry NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S). Launch is targeted for 5:02 p.m. EST, at the beginning of a two-hour launch …

NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S) is the second in the GOES-R Series of weather satellites that includes GOES-R (now named GOES-16), -S, -T and -U. The GOES-S satellite will be renamed GOES-17 when it reaches geostationary orbit. Once the satellite is declared operational, late this year, it will occupy NOAA’s GOES-West position and provide …

The rocket standing on the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 is an Atlas V 541 configuration, one of the most powerful rockets in the Atlas V fleet. The 541 designation means this rocket has a payload fairing, or nose cone, that is approximately five meters wide, four solid-rocket boosters fastened alongside the central common …

Plant Gravity Perception (PGP): Today the crew removed the Plant Gravity Perception seed cassettes from Experiment Containers (ECs) on the two European Modular Cultivation System (EMCS) rotors and stowed them in a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). They also replaced the ECs on the rotors with ECs for the next Plant …

The latest weather update from meteorologists with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing is now at a 90 percent chance of favorable weather today for liftoff of the Atlas V rocket with NOAA’s GOES-S satellite. The rocket is slated to liftoff at 5:02 p.m. EST.

Three Expedition 55 crew members are back to work today on the International Space Station, having taken a day off Wednesday following the landing of the three Expedition 54 crew members on Tuesday. The departing space residents are back on Earth, having returned to their homes less than a day after landing. Now on board …