RELEASE: 97-156 (HQ 97-273)

NASA AWARDS THE FIRST RAPID SPACECRAFT DELIVERY ORDER TO BALL

AEROSPACE FOR THE DELIVERY OF QUIKSCAT SPACECRAFT

NASA has approved an immediate new start for the Quick

Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) mission and has placed the first delivery

order issued under the Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity

(ID/IQ) contracts for rapid delivery of satellite core-systems to

Ball Aerospace Systems Division, Boulder, CO. The ID/IQ

procurement method provides NASA a faster, better, cheaper method

for the purchase of satellite systems through a "catalog,"

allowing for shorter turnaround time from mission conception to

launch.

The mission will fill in the ocean-wind vector data gap

created by the loss of the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) on the

Japanese Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) spacecraft.

The NSCAT instrument ceased functioning when ADEOS failed on June

30, 1997. The follow-on scatterometer for monitoring ocean winds,

called SeaWinds, is scheduled for launch on the Japanese ADEOS-II

spacecraft in 2000. QuickSCAT is planned for launch in November

1998, reducing the data gap by about one-half.

"The challenge levied to us requires the satellite,

instrument, ground system, and launch vehicle be developed,

integrated, and launched in less than a year, something that has

not been accomplished before," said Jim Graf, the QuikSCAT project

manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA.

"To accomplish this extremely short schedule, the satellite

was chosen from a source with existing satellite hardware and Ball

was chosen under NASA's newly instituted Indefinite

Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracts to be the spacecraft

contactor," said Graf. "The instrument will be assembled by JPL

from SeaWinds hardware spares."

QuikSCAT is planned for launch from Vandenberg Air Force

Base, aboard a Titan II vehicle. Total cost for the QuikSCAT

mission is approximately $93 million, including

$39 million to Ball for the spacecraft and $22 million for the

launch vehicle. JPL's cost to develop the instrument is $13

million. Congress approved NASA's use of fiscal year 1997

appropriated funds to undertake the mission.

QuikSCAT represents a unique collaboration between JPL and

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL's

NSCAT/SeaWinds program office has been assigned the QuikSCAT

management responsibility and will provide management, ground

systems and a SeaWinds-type scatterometer instrument.

Goddard has been given responsibility to procure the

satellite under the newly instituted ID/IQ, which enables a quick

acquisition of a science bus to support NASA's space science,

Earth science and technology needs. The award is the result of a

competition among the eight contractors previously selected. This

is the first of two spacecraft delivery orders expected to be

placed in the first quarter of fiscal year 1998.

Ball will implement the QuikSCAT mission, which includes

providing the spacecraft bus, integrating the JPL Scatterometer,

and performing up to two years of observatory

on-orbit operations.

QuikSCAT will use a rotating dish antenna with two microwave

beams of the same design as SeaWinds. The antenna will radiate

microwaves across 90 percent of the Earth's ice-free oceans every

day. The instrument will collect wind-speed and wind direction

data in a continuous 1118 mile-wide band, making approximately

400,000 measurements each day.

As a parallel effort, NASA intends to issue a solicitation

for scientific data to determine whether any such capabilities

exist in the commercial sector. If such data were available it

could have the potential to achieve cost savings or the added

benefit of a back-up source of data if a problem were to arise

with the QuikSCAT mission.

Measuring ocean winds is important because winds are a

driving force for oceanic motions, ranging from small-scale waves

to large-scale systems of ocean currents. Winds directly affect

the turbulent exchanges of heat, moisture and greenhouse gases

between the atmosphere and the ocean. These air-sea exchanges, in

turn, determine regional weather patterns and shape global

climate. Ocean winds data collected before the loss of NSCAT

showed great promise in improving scientists' ability to forecast

the movement of tropical storm systems -- one reason why NASA

wants to bring this capability back on-line as soon as possible.

QuikSCAT will be managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Mission

to Planet Earth enterprise, a long-term coordinated research

effort to study the Earth system and the effects of natural and

human-induced changtes on the global environment.