WASHINGTON, June 18,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA, on behalf of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected
Lockheed Martin Corp. of Littleton,
Colorado, to build the spacecraft for NOAA's Geostationary
Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program.
This cost-plus-award-fee contract is valued at approximately
$2.27 billion. It includes the
development of three spacecraft as well as four options for
additional spacecraft. The anticipated period of performance for
this contract includes support for 10 years of on-orbit operations
and five years of on-orbit storage, for a total of 15 years for
each spacecraft. The work will take place at Lockheed Martin's
facility in Littleton and NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in
Florida.
The GeoXO constellation will include three operational
satellites — east, west and central. Each geostationary, three-axis
stabilized spacecraft is designed to host three instruments. The
centrally-located spacecraft will carry an infrared sounder and
atmospheric composition instrument and can also accommodate a
partner payload. Spacecraft in the east and west positions will
carry an imager, lightning mapper, and ocean color instrument. They
will also support an auxiliary communication payload for the NOAA
Data Collection System relay, dissemination, and commanding.
The contract scope includes the tasks necessary to design,
analyze, develop, fabricate, integrate, test, evaluate, and support
launch of the GeoXO satellites; provide engineering development
units; supply and maintain the ground support equipment and
simulators; and support mission operations at the NOAA Satellite
Operations Facility in Suitland,
Maryland.
NASA and NOAA oversee the development, launch, testing, and
operation of all the satellites in the GeoXO program. NOAA funds
and manages the program, operations, and data products. On behalf
of NOAA, NASA and commercial partners develop and build the
instruments and spacecraft and launch the satellites.
As part of NOAA's constellation of geostationary environmental
satellites to protect life and property across the Western
Hemisphere, the GeoXO program is the follow-on to the Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellites – R (GOES-R) Series
Program.
The GeoXO satellite system will advance Earth observations from
geostationary orbit. The mission will supply vital information to
address major environmental challenges of the future in support of
weather, ocean, and climate operations in the United States. The advanced capabilities
from GeoXO will help assess our changing planet and the evolving
needs of the nation's data users. Together, NASA and NOAA are
working to ensure GeoXO's critical observations are in place by the
early 2030s when the GOES-R Series nears the end of its operational
lifetime.
For more information on the GeoXO program, visit:
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/geoxo
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SOURCE NASA