NOAA In November, the most expensive and advanced weather satellite ever built in the United States launched, and it then spent several weeks reaching a geosynchronous orbit nearly 36,000km from Earth. After some initial diagnostics, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration turned the GOES-16 satellite (GOES stands for "Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite") on and began taking photos of Earth. On Monday, the agency released the first images taken by GOES-16—and do they ever deliver the goods.