Lockheed Martin Corp. said today that it has been awarded a $10 million, six-month contract by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the program definition and risk reduction phase of the nation’s next-generation environmental satellite system.
The contract has two options valued at an additional $10 million each. Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., a division of Lockheed based in Jefferson County, will handle the contract with the company’s integrated systems and solutions division.
NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES, program, observes and predicts the intensity and track of severe storms in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, providing data for daily and long-range weather forecasting and climate studies. In addition to the Earth-observing instruments, the GOES satellites also carry solar instruments that provide advance warning of events on the sun, such as solar flares, that can impact life on Earth.
