In the Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site auditorium, members of the media participate in a mission briefing on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R). Briefing participants from left are: Sean Potter of NASA Communications; Steven Goodman, NOAA’s GOES-R program scientist; Joseph A. Pica, director of the National Weather Service Office of Observations; Sandra Cauffman, deputy director of NASA’s Earth Science Division; and Damon Penn, assistant administrator for response at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. GOES-R is the first satellite in a series of next-generation GOES satellites for NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. It will launch to a geostationary orbit over the western hemisphere to provide images of storms and help meteorologists predict severe weather conditionals and develop long-range forecasts.