NOAA awarded contracts with a cumulative value of more than $3.46 million to four companies to study and demonstrate new technologies and novel concepts for ground processing that could support NESDIS’ future operations.
The Ground Processing Demonstration (GPD) contract awards are:
- Axta Space Corporation, of Arlington, Va., for $749,390, with a 14 month period of performance;
- Cognitive Space Inc., of Houston, Tex., for $900,000, with an eight month period of performance;
- KSAT Inc., of Denver, Colo., for $985,600 with a 12 month period of performance; and
- Booz Allen Hamilton, of McLean, Va., for $825,657 with a 12 month period of performance.
These GPD awards will support studies and demonstrations will help NESDIS assess innovative technologies that may lead to an efficient, cost-effective ground processing enterprise for three independent focus areas of enterprise satellite operations:
- Constellation Mission Operation
- Next Generation Ground Infrastructure
- Data Processing and Dissemination
These awards follow NOAA’s April 13, 2023 posting of Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) BAA-NOAA-GPD-2023 to industry, academia and other federal agencies.
The BAA explores possible future states for NOAA’s ground system, and is not a plan for an implementation itself. There is currently no planned request for proposals to support the implementation related to these focus areas.
These GDP awards are being funded by the Joint Ventures Partnerships program that is administered by NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)
The NESDIS strategic goal is to ensure NOAA can support the anticipated increase in the number of operational satellites and other data streams of environmental observations past 2030. The NESDIS Ground Enterprise Study (NGES) found the current ground operational architecture does not scale economically and would begin to absorb a larger fraction of the projected overall budget.