Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $10 million, six-month contract by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the Program Definition and Risk Reduction (PDRR) phase of the nation's next-generation environmental satellite system, GOES-R. The contract has two options priced at an additional $10 million each.

NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) program has a 30-year history of success in observing and predicting 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.

"We look forward to extending our partnership with NOAA and NASA to develop a high performance, low-risk, executable solution to meet the nation's next-generation environmental satellite needs," said Wes Colburn, vice president, Earth Observing Systems, GOES-R program manager, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC).

These next generation GOES-R satellites will carry instruments that offer dramatic improvements in our ability to observe the Earth and the Sun and will lead to more accurate predictions of the intensity and landfall of hurricanes with longer lead times than today, significantly improving weather forecasts. Scientists will be able to use new observations to monitor the variability of atmospheric constituents associated with air quality and climate change. The aviation weather community will also benefit from more accurate upper level wind measurements, better predictions of clear air turbulence events, and an improved ability to detect and track volcanic ash that can damage jet engines.

In addition, GOES-R will field new capabilities. The satellites will carry a coastal waters imager capability that will view the entire U.S. coastline every three hours at high resolution. This instrument will be used to evaluate the ocean's biological productivity, detect harmful algae blooms, and assess coastal zones after severe storms for protection of fragile ecosystems. These new and augmented capabilities provided by GOES-R will lead to significant economic benefits to the nation in the areas of weather and water, climate, ecosystems monitoring and management, and commerce and transportation.

The GOES-R team assembled by Lockheed Martin brings together the best assets available across the corporation, and throughout industry and academia, providing the in-depth experience and capabilities necessary to successfully execute the GOES-R program.

LMSSC leads the GOES-R program team and is responsible for the space segment. Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems & Solutions (IS&S) provides the systems integration and ground segment. Fifteen industry and academic partners chosen for the Lockheed Martin team based on their proven performance, bring additional domain expertise and key enabling technologies to the GOES-R effort.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, a major operating unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation, designs, develops, tests, manufactures and operates a variety of advanced technology systems for military, civil and commercial customers. Chief products include a full-range of space launch systems, including heavy-lift capability, ground systems, remote sensing and communications satellites for commercial and government customers, advanced space observatories and interplanetary spacecraft, fleet ballistic missiles and missile defense systems.

Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems & Solutions (IS&S) closely aligns competencies and resources to address customer needs for horizontally- integrated, net-centric solutions. IS&S is composed of eight customer-focused lines of business and six teams of subject matter experts that draw upon vast expertise throughout Lockheed Martin to provide customers with the system-of- systems capabilities they need to support complex net-centric operations.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin Corporation employs about 130,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2004 sales of $35.5 billion.

Contact: Buddy Nelson, +1-510-797-0349, or pager, +1-888-916-1797, or buddynelson@mac.com.

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company