14 DAY TRIAL // Officials at the American space agency announce that they have just awarded two major contracts of the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) satellite.
The spacecraft needs to be ready for launch by 2014. and NASA has just secured contractors for the common ground system and for one of the scientific instruments that will go on the JPSS.
This project is basically nothing but the recently restructured civilian portion of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), which is an Earth-observing tool.
The United States at this point are moving towards creating more advanced orbital capabilities for weather predictions and conducting climate measurements.
This is one of the main reasons why the satellites and the sensors included in the JPSS will share the same ground infrastructure with the weather satellite system operated by the US Department of Defense (DOD).
But the faith of these projects is still uncertain, given that Congress is currently seeking to limit federal spending for producing new satellites constellations.
While this may indeed save some money, it could very well jeopardize national security, given that the satellite fleet the county operates is getting old at a very fast pace.
But, as Congress seeks to determine the faith of new satellite systems, NASA is going on with business as planned. El Segundo, California-based Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems just got the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument contract.
The period of performance that the document covers extends all the way to September 2018, and the agreement is estimated to worth about $314 million.
The main provision in the document is that Raytheon needs to design, manufacture, test and deliver two VIIRS instruments to NASA. The space agency made the deal in the name of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“VIIRS will gather data on a wide range of Earth's properties, including the atmosphere, clouds, radiation budget, clear-air land and water surfaces, and sea surface temperature,” officials at NASA say in a press release.
The second contract was awarded to Aurora, Colorado-based Raytheon Corporation, which is to develop the Common Ground System for about $1.4 billion.
“Under this contract, Raytheon will design, manufacture, test and deliver hardware, software, and related services for the mission operations of the JPSS ground system,” NASA says.
Once operational in Earth's orbit, the JPSS will be managed by NOAA.