An artist's concept of a GOES satellite in space. Photo: NASA/GSFC

The second in a series of orbital maneuvers is planned today for the newest U.S. weather satellite launched on Wednesday.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-L, or GOES-L, spacecraft is slated to fire its liquid-fueled apogee kick engine for about a half-hour beginning at 5:36 p.m. EDT (2136 GMT).

This will be the second of three scheduled Apogee Motor Firings to boost and circularize GOES-L's orbit to geostationary altitude 22,240 miles above Earth. The satellite was delivered into an egg-shaped transfer orbit by the Lockheed Martin Atlas 2A rocket following a successful launch early Wednesday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The first maneuver was completed Thursday night, lasting 53 1/2 minutes. The third and final apogee motor firing is scheduled for Tuesday and will last for approximately six minutes.

GOES-L is the fourth in a series of five of the most sophisticated weather spacecraft ever built. Once on station in space and checked out, controllers will put the craft into storage until one of the two working GOES satellites needs to be replaced.

The GOES system -- operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- relies on two satellites to cover the Western U.S. and Pacific Ocean and the Eastern U.S. and Atlantic Ocean.

The satellite now stationed on the eastern front -- GOES-8 -- was launched six years ago and has worked one year beyond its design life. Its advanced age concerns officials that the craft might soon malfunction, halting the stream of weather information for the Eastern U.S. and Atlantic region.

The $250 million GOES-L satellite is a three-axis internally stabilized weather spacecraft that has the dual capability of providing pictures while performing atmospheric sounding at the same time. The satellite is to be designated GOES-11 and will complete its 90 day checkout in time for availability during the 2000 hurricane season.

Throughout the first 17 days in space, NASA and NOAA controllers are scheduled to perform several orbit boost and adjust maneuvers, culminating with the spacecraft arriving in a stationary position above the Earth's equator at 104 degrees West Longitude. Controllers operate the spacecraft from the NOAA Satellite Operations Control Center in Suitland, Maryland.