ESA GNC Conference Papers Repository

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R program (GOES-R) has launched three of the latest generation of US geostationary weather satellites, of which all three are now fully operational. In this paper we discuss how the robust capabilities inherent in the design have been used to address off-nominal instrument performance observed in flight, and to subsequently provide acceptable data return from two of the instruments exhibiting off-nominal performance. The primary science instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), performed well on GOES-16, but on GOES-17 ABI exhibited anomalous infrared (IR) imaging early in the mission. Lower thermal control performance than designed produced elevated temperatures on the IR detectors. This paper presents spacecraft operations undertaken to calibrate the off-nominal performance of the instrument thermal control, and to develop spacecraft operational mitigation steps to recover near-nominal instrument performance. On GOES-16, the magnetometer (MAG) instrument performance was less than expected. As part of the MAG performance investigation, an improved calibration procedure was developed that required use of the entire GOES-R performance envelope. This paper presents an overview of the MAG performance issues and discusses details of the Guidance, Navigation, and Control capabilities employed to help maximize science return.