These images show the progress of the spacecraft mate as it was underway at the Lockheed Martin facility near Denver. With the core spacecraft now complete, instrument installation will begin. Photo: Lockheed Martin

[Via Satellite 09-18-2014] Harris Corporation completed the integration of the first weather product applications onto the ground segment hardware for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‘s (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite – R (GOES-R) Series program.

Harris delivered the ground system to NOAA earlier this year, for which it is the prime contractor. The recent upgrade enables core weather product generation and distribution capabilities. According to Harris, the new system can produce weather-related products in five minutes compared to the 30 minutes required for the current GOES operational capability, accelerating the speed of weather forecasting.

Harris has demonstrated the transfer of these products to the NOAA National Weather Service’s (NWS) Advanced Weather Information Processing System. The company also delivered an early release of the remaining sensor software for the creation of products related to lightning and space weather.