Ball Aerospace Picked to Provide NPP Spacecraft Bus

Goddard has selected Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation (BATC), Boulder, Colo., to build the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) Spacecraft.

Under the terms of the delivery order valued at $94 million (including spacecraft and all associated options) BATC will be responsible for the design and fabrication of the NPP spacecraft bus, integration of the Government-furnished instruments, satellite-level testing, and on-orbit satellite check-out.

NPP is a joint mission with contributions by NASA and NOAA's NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO). NASA is providing the NPP spacecraft, the launch vehicle and one of the three advanced sensors. The IPO will develop two new sensors, the spacecraft operations control center and ground processing systems.

The delivery order was awarded under NASA/GSFC's Rapid II Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract. The contract is for Core Spacecraft Systems.

For more information on the Ball Aerospace NPP contract, go to: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/news-release/releases/2002/h02-96.htm