NASA has chosen Lockheed Martin Corp. of Littleton to develop a lightning mapping instrument for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of the Geostationary Extended Observations satellite program. The contract, valued at approximately $297.1 million, is a cost-plus-award-fee agreement.
The contract includes the development of two flight instruments with options for two additional units. The anticipated period of performance covers 10 years of on-orbit operations and five years of on-orbit storage, totaling 15 years for each flight model.
Work will be conducted at Lockheed Martin’s facilities in Sunnyvale, Calif., and Littleton, as well as at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The GeoXO Lightning Mapper will detect, locate and measure the intensity, duration and extent of lightning flashes. This instrument is expected to continue vital observations currently provided by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites-R Series Geostationary Lightning Mapper. Data from the Lightning Mapper will aid in analyzing severe storms, increasing warning lead time for hazardous weather and providing earlier indications of impending lightning strikes to the ground. It will also be used for hurricane intensity prediction, wildfire detection and response, precipitation estimation and mitigating aviation hazards.
The contract encompasses the design, analysis, development, fabrication, integration, testing, verification and evaluation of the lightning mapper instrument, as well as tasks related to launch support, maintenance of ground support equipment and mission operations at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md.