U.S. weather-watcher satellite fails just before hurricane season

[Bosonic]

Source: Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 24 (Reuters) - A key satellite positioned to track severe weather in the eastern United States has failed, just as the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is about to start.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has activated a spare satellite, which will provide coverage of the East Coast, while tries to fix the failed one, the agency said in a status report on its website on Friday.

"There is no estimate on return to operations at this time," NOAA said.

The Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season starts on June 1 and lasts six months. NOAA warned on Thursday that this year's season may be "extremely active," with 13 to 20 tropical storms and seven to 11 of those strengthening into hurricanes.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/24/space-hurricane-idUSL2N0E51EN20130524

[LiberalEsto]

1. I didn't think sequestration extended to satellites

but apparently it does.

[Blue State Bandit]

2. It's GOES 13 that is down.

GOES 13 provides infra-red sat coverage of the Atlantic basin It's been down for a couple of days now, possibly knocked out by a major radiation storm from a fast moving CME. GOES 14 is booting up and may be able to pick-up the slack soon, that is, if we can afford the up-link time.

[DainBramaged]

3. And we have no vehicle to send anyone up to fix it..........

think about that for a minute. Vulnerability, we gots it.....

[magellan]

4. GOES 13 is in geostationary orbit 22,300 miles up

The shuttle's operating altitudes were between 115 and 596.5 miles. Sadly, not much help even if we still had the program.

[hollysmom]

5. infrastructure - we have been letting it go to pot for years.

[Warpy]

6. That's Republican "small government" for you

Everything gets lavished on the military while everyone else starves.

[darkangel218]

7. The alienz shot it down :p

If was in the way of their flying saucers :p

[BlueToTheBone]

8. I'm glad we're not spending money on stuff that's useful.

Really! Who needs storm alert systems, bridges that don't fail? We just want bullets and war. of course