Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company said Monday it has partnered with Science Applications International Corporation and IBM Business Consulting Services to compete for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite program.
The GOES program, a joint effort of NOAA and NASA, provides key monitoring and forecasts of weather, climate and natural events such as wild fires. The GOES-R series, scheduled to begin operations in 2012, will feature improved spacecraft and instrument technologies, and faster ground processing.
GOES-R also is intended to be the cornerstone of GEOSS – for Global Earth Observations System of Systems – an international Earth-observation partnership of 61 countries.
SAIC Earth Sciences will help in the development of calibration algorithms, and in characterizing and modeling GOES-R sensors. IBM Business Consulting Services will assist in the design and development of service-oriented architectures and related software products. The company will support Lockheed Martin's efforts to make the current GOES infrastructure a more service-oriented, open architecture design.
"These relationships are a prime example of our focus on developing and delivering the best science and technologies in addition to leveraging our 45-year heritage of Earth environmental missions to provide NOAA with an unmatched solution to GOES-R," said Wes Colburn, the GOES-R program manager for LMSSC.
