PARIS – Ball Aerospace won a $486.9 million contract to deliver a sounder for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Prolonged Observations satellite program.
Under the cost-plus-award-fee contract awarded by NASA announced Sept. 11, Ball will construct and deliver one GeoXO sounder, integrate it with the next-generation NOAA weather satellite and supply support for the primary flight instrument. The contract includes options for added sounders.
“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 complete of 15 years for every flight instrument,” based on the NASA-NOAA news release.
Ball’s work will likely be performed at the corporate’s facility in Boulder, Colorado, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The GeoXO Sounder, referred to as GXS, is a hyperspectral infrared instrument designed to detect infrared light and supply “real-time information in regards to the vertical distribution of atmospheric moisture, temperature, and winds over the Western Hemisphere,” based on the news release.
The National Weather Service expects GXS data to enhance numerical weather prediction and short-term forecasts of convection and severe weather. GXS data is also more likely to help the National Hurricane Center improve hurricane track and intensity forecasts.
The GeoXO program, the follow-on to the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites – R Series program, is predicted to be gathering data within the early 2030s. NOAA chosen L3Harris in March to supply the imager instrument for the satellites under a $765.5 million contract.
NOAA requested $417.4 million for GeoXO in its fiscal 12 months 2024 budget proposal.
NOAA funds and manages the GeoXO program, operations and data products. NASA works with business partners to develop and construct the instruments and spacecraft along with launching the satellites.