Abstract: This study demonstrates the importance of an early morning orbit satellite for improved coastal quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) near the Gulf of Mexico. The Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) radiance observations from the early morning satellite NOAA-15, the mid-morning satellite MetOp-A, and the afternoon satellite NOAA-18, are assimilated using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI). For the Gulf coast precipitation case selected in this study, two pairs of data assimilation and forecasting experiments are carried out to compare the differences in QPFs with and without assimilating AMSU-A data from NOAA-15. It is shown that the two orbits provided by NOAA-18 and MetOp-A render both the Gulf of Mexico and the western continent of the United States as two data-void areas at 0000 UTC and 1200 UTC. The NOAA-15 orbit fills these data gaps. Adding NOAA-15 AMSU-A data into GSI data assimilation results in a consistently positive impact on the QPFs near the Gulf coast. It is thus suggested to have a continual availability of an early morning orbiting satellite with an AMSU-A or AMSU-A-like instrument onboard. A partial solution would be a sustained effort to maintain the NOAA-15 AMSU-A for longer-lived operation.