Thermal Model Correlation of a NOAA Weather Satellite

Managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the first spacecraft in the latest series of weather satellites for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), completed thermal vacuum testing in August 2015. Testing of the Geostationary Environmental Operational System satellite (GOES-R) utilized numerous arrays of tubular electrical heaters to simulate orbital environmental heating, for thermal balance conditions and for zonal control to achieve protoflight temperatures of the satellite bus and science instruments. This paper will present the results of this test, including a summary of meeting protoflight and thermal balance predictions, details of the post-test correlation efforts, and explore some of the lessons learned from this test that will benefit future thermal vacuum tests.