Raytheon team tracks NOAA satellite upgrade

Raytheon Co. has announced its team of information technology contractors and climate experts that will seek a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contract expected to be worth $500 million or more.

NOAA has not yet issued its contract for the next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R series (GOES-R) ground segment, but a Raytheon spokesman said the company wanted to be ready in advance of the request for proposals by the climate-monitoring agency.

GOES-R satellites will not only provide critical weather observations for severe meteorological events such as hurricanes but also incorporate major improvements in their observational capabilities for climate, oceans and coasts, and the space environment, Raytheon said.

The first launch of GOES-R is scheduled for late 2012, according to Crosslink, an aerospace industry publication. The launch will mark the first technological advance in GOES instrumentation since 1994, it said. Two active GOES satellites monitor the space environment, receive and transmit search-and-rescue data, and relay ground-based environmental platform data.

Raytheon's team includes Lockheed Martin Co.; Arctic Slope Regional Corp.; Omitron Inc.; Orbital Network Engineering Inc.; Silicon Graphics Inc.; STC Inc.'s METSAT division; SM Resources Corp.; RT Logic Inc., a subsidiary of Integral Systems Inc.; and Photon Research Associates, a subsidiary of Raytheon.

Experts in data mining, modeling and simulation, scene generation, and data verification and validation from the University of Oklahoma and University of California at Los Angeles also are on the team.

Raytheon, of Waltham, Mass., ranks No. 6 on Washington Technology's 2007 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.