A Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) joint venture has won a potential $412 million contract to help NASA launch three satellites, the agency announced Monday.
United Launch Services, a subsidiary of United Launch Alliance, will provide task-ordered launch services, process payloads and integrate launch vehicles.
ULS will also provide provide ground support, tracking and data and telemetry services.
NASA plans to launch the Soil Moisture Active Passive, Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 and Joint Polar Satellite System-1 spacecraft onboard Delta II rockets from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
SMAP, OCO-2, and JPSS-1 are all slated to launch in October 2014, July 2014 and November 2016, respectively, according to NASA.
SMAP will measure soil moisture with the goal of helping scientists understand the Earth’s water, energy and carbon cycles to predict floods and monitor droughts.
OCO-2 is intended to study atmospheric carbon dioxide regulations and will provide an image of human and natural carbon dioxide sources and places where gas is pulled out of the atmosphere and stored, NASA said.
JPSS-1 will succeed the Suomi-National Polar Partnership spacecraft and will perform on orbit afternoon observations for weather forecasting, storm outlooks and global measurements of atmospheric and oceanic conditions.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages SMAP and OCO-2 and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oversees the JPSS-1 mission.
NASA’s launch services program, based at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., oversees vehicle program management for SMAP, OCO-2 and JPSS-1 launch services.
