Xinhua News Agency, Washington, March 1. NASA announced on the 1st that the United Launch Alliance's "Atlas 5" launch vehicle lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida in the afternoon to lift the third U.S. A next-generation weather satellite into space.

　　According to NASA, the "Geostationary Environmental Observation Satellite-T" (GOES-T) was launched at 16:38 US Eastern Time on March 1 (5:38 Beijing Time on the 2nd). The latest news shows that the satellite has been successfully separated from the launch vehicle.

　　Jointly developed by NASA and NOAA, the satellite is the third next-generation weather satellite to be launched by the United States, and it detaches from the launch vehicle about 3.5 hours after launch and continues its journey, ascending to a higher Geostationary orbit. After it has been inspected, calibrated and deemed operational, it will be renamed GOES-18, replacing the previous GOES-17 satellite, which is responsible for monitoring meteorological conditions on the West Coast of the United States, Alaska, Hawaii and other regions.

　　The new weather satellite is about the size of a small school bus and weighs about 2,720 kilograms. It can assist meteorologists to monitor dust storms, volcanic eruptions and forest fires in the western United States, and predict meteorological events or extreme weather in these areas including lightning, tornadoes, coastal fog, hurricanes, floods, etc.

　　On November 19, 2016, the United States launched the first next-generation weather satellite, GOES-16, to monitor the eastern United States climate. GOES-17 was launched on March 1, 2018, to monitor the climate of the western United States.