KSC-99pc52

In a specially built clean room at Astrotech, Titusville, Fla., Loral technician Roberto Caballero checks the position of the <a href="http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/goes-l.htm">GOES-L</a> weather satellite before beginning deployment of the sounder instrument's cooler cover door. The sounder, one of two meteorological instruments on the satellite, measures temperature and moisture in a vertical column of air from the satellite to Earth. Its findings will help forecast weather. GOES-L, which is to be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Station aboard an Atlas II rocket in late March, is the fourth of a new advanced series of geostationary weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It is a three-axis inertially stabilized spacecraft that will provide pictures as well as perform the atmospheric sounding. Once launched, the satellite, to be designated GOES-11, will undergo checkout and provide backup capabilities for the existing, aging GOES East weather satellite