File:KSC-05-S-00283 (ksc 081505 goesn dress 4).webm

English: BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Okay, thank you. Let's move on to the next question. This is from Sandy in St. Augustine: Can you explain the difference between the GOES and the POES spacecraft? ANDRE' DRESS: That's, Sandy, that's a good question. The difference is primarily in their mission. Okay, the GOES and the POES spacecraft do the same things in that they take pictures and take weather data, okay, but what we're really looking at is the different perspective of those two satellites. Now, the POES satellite is launched into what we call a low-Earth orbiting mission, okay, and so it orbits the Earth about 900 kilometers. And so it orbits the Earth about every 100 minutes, it revolves around the Earth, so every day, it orbits the Earth about 14, 15 times. The GOES spacecraft is actually launched into what we call a geosynchronous orbit, and whereas the POES satellite is up about 900 kilometers, the GOES satellite is up about 36,000 kilometers, so its perspective is much different, okay. And at that geosynchronous orbit, it actually orbits the Earth once per day, so 24 hours. So what it does is effectively gives the GOES spacecraft the opportunity to see the same spot over the Earth, and that gives us an advantage as far as tracking weather storms coming across the Atlantic and whatnot. BRUCE BUCKINGHAM: Thank you.