Instrument Studies Awarded for the NOAA GOES-R Spacecraft

On behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
NASA has selected two contractors to perform design and risk reduction for
the Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS) of instruments for NOAA’s next
generation of Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES)-R
Series of spacecraft.

The SEISS is a suite of three particle sensor instruments: a
magnetospheric particle sensor (MPS), a solar and galactic proton sensor
(SGPS) and an energetic heavy ion sensor (EHIS). These instruments will
provide data essential to NOAA’s Space Weather Operations and to the
long-term record of changing conditions in the space environment. The
SEISS is one of 5 instruments planned for launch in 2012 on the first
GOES-R series of spacecraft.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company Advanced Technology Center (LMATC)
will receive a firm-fixed contract in the amount of $2 million. They will
perform the work at the LMATC facility in Palo Alto, Calif. and at
Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. Assurance Technology
Corporation (ATC) will receive a firm-fixed price contract in the amount
of $1,827,499. They will perform the work at the ATC facilities in
Carlisle and Chelmsford, Mass., and at AMPTEK, Inc., in Bedford, Mass.
Both contracts have a nine-month period of performance.

Under the terms of the contracts, the firms will study the minimum SEISS
operational performance (threshold) tasks, as well as goal performance
requirements and tasks.

GOES-R will be the follow-on system to the GOES-I-P. Operating as a
single end-to-end program with new and enhanced capabilities, the GOES-R
system will provide environmental information over a greater geographical
location in less time and at higher resolutions. These satellites will
provide critical atmospheric, oceanic, climatic, solar and space infrared
and imaging data of the entire United States surface and atmosphere to
support all of NOAA’s mission goals in ecosystems, climate, weather and
water, and commerce and transportation.

The overall GOES Program is managed by NOAA, which establishes
requirements, provides funding, and distributes environmental data for the
United States. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., teams
with NOAA to acquire and manage the study, design and development of each
of the GOES satellites. Specific management roles and responsibilities
for NOAA and NASA/GSFC are being finalized and will be detailed at a later
time.

For information concerning this procurement, please contact the
Contracting Officer, Caesar Gooden, 301/286-0109. The GOES-R Series
Project Manager for this procurement is Michael Donnelly, 301/286-1627.

For more information on the GOES satellites, go to:

http://goespoes.gsfc.nasa.gov
or
http://www.osd.noaa.gov/GOES/

Weather imagery and atmospheric sounding information can be found at:
http://rsd.gsfc.nasa.gov/goes/