KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- The Atlas II rocket roars into the sky with the GOES-M satellite on top. Liftoff occurred at 3:23:01 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 36-A, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. GOES-M is the last in the current series of advanced geostationary weather satellites in service. GOES-M has a new instrument not on earlier spacecraft, a Solar X-ray Imager, which can be used in forecasting space weather and the effects of solar storms
Location Kennedy Space Center, FL
Date July 23, 2001