The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that the GOES 13 meterological satellite has now been recovered to service. The spacecraft, which had suffered a failure to its temperature and humidity sounder and multi-spectral imager on 23 September was returned to service as the official “Goes-East” satellite 1444 GMT on 18 October. In doing so, GOES 13 retakes this role from GOES 14 which took over when GOES 13 fell out of service. GOES 13 was repaired using an outgassing technique to prvent the lubricant-related vibration in the sounder’s filter wheel. GOES 14 will be retained as a back up to GOES 13.
