GOES 17
Country: United States · Also known as: GOES-West
Live Position
Ground Track · Last 90 Minutes
Upcoming Passes · Over Your Location
About This Satellite
GOES-17 launched as GOES-S in March 2018. It served as GOES-West from February 2019 until GOES-18 took over on January 4, 2023. The program subsequently placed GOES-17 in on-orbit storage.
Why this is not the primary western weather feed
A spacecraft can remain in orbit after its operational role passes to another member of the fleet. Storage is different from reentry.
Read the anomaly history alongside the orbit
An apparently normal trajectory cannot diagnose an instrument cooling problem. TLEs describe motion; calibration reports describe measurement performance. GOES-17 is a useful example of why these two kinds of evidence must remain separate.
Mission reference: NOAA/NASA: GOES-R series mission history. Editorial review: .
The cooling problem was inside the imager system
GOES-17's Advanced Baseline Imager had a loop-heat-pipe cooling problem that degraded some infrared observations during warm periods. NOAA changed operating procedures and used complementary observations to mitigate the impact. This was not an explanation for every missing image, nor did it mean the spacecraft had stopped following an orbit.
Reference: NOAA/NASA: GOES-17 ABI performance history.
How the experience influenced its successor
The investigation led to changes in the ABI radiator and loop-heat-pipe design for the later GOES-T and GOES-U spacecraft. The redesign used a simpler configuration without the filters susceptible to debris. This engineering history distinguishes GOES-17 from an otherwise similar-looking satellite: shared mission architecture does not guarantee identical hardware behaviour.
Reference: NOAA/NASA: cooling-system investigation and redesign.
Reading this orbital snapshot
Based on TLE epoch: 2026-09-05. Estimated altitude ranges from 35,782 km at perigee to 35,792 km at apogee, a difference of 10 km. The orbital period is about 1436.1 minutes. Eccentricity 0.00012 indicates a nearly circular path. In a two-body approximation, perigee speed is 1.00 times apogee speed. These are mean-element estimates, not instantaneous measurements. Distance per orbit uses an ellipse approximation.
Saved build snapshot. If a valid TLE is retrieved, this explanation and the orbit panel update together. Otherwise this dated snapshot is retained.
Ground track is not sensor coverage
An inclination of 1.14 degrees implies approximate geocentric ground-track limits of 1.1 degrees north and south. This is a prograde orbit, moving in the same general direction as Earth rotation. The plotted line marks the point beneath the object. It does not represent camera coverage, radio reception, or a guaranteed visible pass.
Is it fixed above one longitude?
The snapshot period is 1436.1 minutes. A sidereal day is about 1,436.07 minutes. Height alone does not establish a geostationary orbit: the period must match Earth rotation and the path must be circular and equatorial. This catalog uses a five-minute period tolerance for near-geosynchronous labels; near-geostationary additionally requires inclination at most 1 degree and eccentricity at most 0.01. These are browsing categories, not evidence of station-keeping or a fixed longitude.
Accuracy and missing information
The introductory record describes the build snapshot. The orbital snapshot explanation and orbit panel share any successfully retrieved TLE; check the displayed epoch. Reentered objects retain historical data only. Mission history is not rewritten by TLE updates. TLE/SGP4 positions are predictions and can change after maneuvers or updated observations. The 14-day stale-data cutoff is a display safeguard, not an accuracy guarantee. Local passes are geometric predictions, not a visibility forecast. No verified operator or mission status means unknown, not active. Do not use this catalog for collision avoidance or operational flight decisions.
Catalog sources: CelesTrak SATCAT: NORAD 43226 · GCAT: S43226 (source update 2026 Sep 4 2345:57). Supplementary metadata: SatNOGS DB, retrieved 2026-09-05T12:57:25.375Z. Page assembled 2026-09-15. GCAT phase codes describe trajectory phases, not mission health.
Learn more: TLE data · Perigee and apogee · Ground tracks · JOT (Jewawud Live Orbital Map)