Comment by dabluecaboose
7 hours ago
Former GOES engineer here. At this point I'd almost be surprised if 19 didn't have something go wrong. We had issues on almost every other satellite. GOES-17 had the loop heat pipe anomaly(Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom...), GOES-15 (IIRC) had a micrometeorite strike, and GOES-13 had a fuel tank anomaly right before deorbit.
GOES-16 and GOES-17 are on-orbit spares, so in the extremely unlikely event of a total failure there's at least another spacecraft on-orbit ready to take up station.
That said, I have every faith in the GOES team to get to the bottom of this. They're the best, and I often wish I was back there working with them.
From now on, every time I see the word "anomaly" I will assume it is an euphemism for "someone stepped on it".
"Anomaly" is one of those words that, in the space industry, can mean anything from "Our payload isn't behaving as well as we're expecting" to "Someone stepped on it" to "A rock hit it"
You can use it to describe literally anything that's off nominal. It's fantastic.
> Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom
I would be too embarrassed to return to work if I did that.
How do they track that? Is there a log book where someone has to write to?
"Observed EMP555 step on loop heat pipe. Conducted visual inspection of the affected area; no damage found, pipe remains nominal."
I'm sure they take detailed close out photos and likely video of the entire handling process.
“Measurements taking of the person: foot and shoe weight, total weight including clothing, height and leg length, estimated velocity of travel at time, estimated duration of load”
> GOES-17 had the loop heat pipe anomaly(Supposedly from someone stepping on it in the cleanroom...)
Was this reported anywhere in the news? Sounds like one of those "not even once" kind of mistakes.