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Narrator: Say you've been observing Earth's weather using GOES satellites for the past 40 years.

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and suddenly you realize you need to launch another satellite to keep doing it because it's really important.

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naturally, you might think to yourself, "Great, let's just

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parts from the previous satellite, launch them into space, and let them do their

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thing". Unfortunately that's just not how it works.

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Scientists and engineers are always looking for better ways to improve the weather forecast, and for them,

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images like this from decades old satellites just aren't quite up to snuff.

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Thankfully scientists and engineers have been busy working with meteorologists to improve things. So they have

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an idea of what data is needed next. That way when they launch a new satellite

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they're adding to what they learned before, which means even better weather forecast for the rest of us.

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So, when you build a satellite in NOAA's GOES series called GOES-R.

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It naturally sets off a flurry of activity. Because they always want to improve

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things. Engineers might change the satellite platform, upgrade all the instruments, and

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because it's meant to improve the forecast, add something totally new that's never been done before.

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Like a new lightning mapper. After months of constructive debates and probably

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more than a few late nights, they'll finally come to an agreement.

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Once everything has been approved, the engineers get to design and put the satellite together.

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However, even though they've built GOES satellites before, it's not just a matter of pulling out the old designs and

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bolting everything together. Because there's new science to be done, things need to be redesigned

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modified, upgraded, built, tested, re-tested,

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tested some more, and finally delivered so that at the end of the day it all fits neatly

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atop a giant rocket. Once all that's finished, the satellite launches into space

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The scientists and engineers celebrate and lots of new data stars coming in that improves the weather

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forecast for us here on Earth.