Boeing (NYSE: BA) has won a $289 million contract modification from NASA to build an additional tracking and data relay satellite, the sixth satellite Boeing will have built for the agency.
The company indicated it has already delivered three TDRS satellites to NASA and has two more in the pipeline under a $700 million fixed-price contract NASA awarded in 2007, to be delivered for launches in 2012 and 2013.
The initial award included TDRS K and L with an option for TDRS M, which the company received the contract to deliver. TDRS M is expected to launch in 2015.
In addition, Boeing said it has teamed with General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), near Las Cruces, N.M., in order to modify already existing TDRS system ground terminals.
“TDRS M will address the growing need for satellites to serve as NASA’s means of continuous, high-data-rate communication with the International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope and dozens of unmanned scientific satellites in low Earth orbit, ” said Craig Cooning, vice president and general manager of Boeing space and intelligence systems.
