MELBOURNE, Fla., 7 Nov. 2005. Harris Corp. announced today that it has been awarded a six-month, $2.8 million Program Definition and Risk Reduction (PDRR) contract by The Boeing Company for the ground processing segment of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite - Series R (GOES-R) program.
When ready for launch in 2012, GOES-R will feature highly advanced sensor technology and will provide much higher resolution and data frequency than the current GOES spacecraft family. Value of the GOES-R PDRR work for Harris could reach $8 million by 2007 if NOAA exercises all its options for this phase of the contract.
Under the GOES-R contract with Boeing, Harris is responsible for the design and development of the GOES-R Ground Segment. This includes developing a data processing and command-and-control ground prototype for the overall satellite system architecture. The PDRR phase will end with a "fly-off" competition in 2007, with NOAA selecting a single team for development and production of the GOES-R end-to-end system.
GOES-R will carry several operational instruments, including:
* the 16-channel Advanced Baseline Imager, which will provide visual and infrared imagery of the Western Hemisphere every five minutes;
* a Hyper-spectral Environmental Suite, which will provide full disk atmospheric soundings to assist in severe weather forecasting;
* an extended Solar X-Ray Imager; and
* a Space Environment Monitoring Suite, which will monitor the effects of solar activity on the Earth's atmosphere.
This suite of instruments will produce over 100 times the information provided by the current system and will offer a wide variety of unique observations of the environment, with particular emphasis on severe weather and hurricane activity in the Western Hemisphere.
Harris ground data processing systems consist of complex suites of hardware and software that receive sensor data from satellites and process it into useable environmental parameters under stringent timelines, turning the data into useable information. The company's command and control systems feature commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) design and high levels of flexibility. Designed for government and commercial applications, they support single-satellite missions as well as the largest and most complex satellite fleets deployed today.
"We are extremely pleased to have this opportunity to work with Boeing to develop a ground processing system that will best support the next generation of geostationary weather satellites for NOAA," said Al Dukes, president of the Civil Programs business unit of Harris Corporation's Government Communications Systems Division (GCSD). "GOES-R represents a quantum leap in the quantity, timeliness and accuracy of remotely sensed meteorological data. We look forward to fielding a winning prototype solution for the Boeing team."
Harris GCSD conducts advanced research studies, develops prototypes, and produces and supports state-of-the-art, assured communications solutions and information systems that solve the mission-critical challenges of its military and government customers, while serving as the technology base for the company's diverse commercial businesses.
Harris Corp. is an international communications and information technology company serving government and commercial markets in more than 150 countries. With headquarters in Melbourne, Fla., the company has annual sales of over $3 billion and has 12,600 employees, including 5,500 engineers and scientists. The company's four operating divisions serve markets for government communications, RF communications, broadcast communications, and microwave communications. For more information, see www.harris.com.
