Lockheed, Maxar Awarded NOAA Spacecraft Study Contracts

The space divisions of Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Maxar Technologies (NYSE: MAXR) have received 10-month contracts to study spacecraft designs for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Extended Observations program with NASA.

NASA awarded $5 million to each contractor to conduct concept development and technology maturation efforts and help the government to formulate program requirements, NOAA said Tuesday.

The GeoXO constellation will consist of Earth observation satellites envisioned to carry an imager, a lightning mapper, an ocean color instrument, a sounder and an atmospheric composition partner payload.

NOAA intends for the planned satellite constellation to help researchers collect environmental data for use in weather forecasting, ocean observation and climate management operations nationwide.

The agencies plan to use data from the studies to establish a spacecraft implementation contract that could be awarded sometime in 2024.

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