NOAA plans $20M satellite review

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded 11 contracts to develop architecture ideas for next-generation weather satellites.

The winning companies will conduct studies on the best ways to upgrade the agency's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system, NOAA officials said. The contracts of various amounts are worth a combined $20.5 million. Each contract is for 12 months, with an option for six more months.

Each company will define requirements for different parts of the GOES system. The studies must include research of advanced technologies and other architectures, NOAA officials said.

The satellite system provides global weather information for public and government use. The agency wants to upgrade the quality and timeliness of the information.

The 11 vendors and their contract awards are:

• Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.: $2.5 million


• Boeing Co.: $2.5 million


• Carr Astronautics Inc.: $500,000


• Harris Corp.: $1.5 million


• Honeywell International Corp.: $500,000


• Integral Systems Inc.: $500,000


• Lockheed Martin Corp.: $2.5 million


• Northrop Grumman Corp.: $2.5 million


• Orbital Sciences Corp.: $2 million


• Raytheon Co.: $2.5 million


• Spectrum Astro Inc.: $1 million