UM: Goes-3 Satellite Decommissioned After More Than 20 Years

he National Science Foundation (NSF) late last month decommissioned a 38-year-old communications satellite–among the oldest, continuously operating satellites in the skies–that for 21 years had helped to link NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station with the outside world.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES-3, was designed and built as a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather satellite. After completing its NOAA mission, it was re-purposed as a communications satellite to support the NSF-managed United States Antarctic Program.