The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) deactivated geostationary operational satellite 10 (GOES 10) on 1 December, in preparation to develop more advanced satellite for the future.

Following its retirement, the GOES 10, which was launched in April 1997, will be shut down and pushed into an orbit where it won’t interfere with other satellites.

The GOES 10, originally planned for a five-year mission, has tracked devastating hurricanes such as Mitch in 1998 and Katrina in 2005 in its 12 years of service.

Located at 60W longitude, the GOES-10 provided meteorological imagery for South America users, during its active service with NOAA.

NOAA will now develop the next generation GOES-R satellite, which will produce images twice as clear as those produced today and gather 20 times as many atmospheric observations, after its launch in 2015.