Raytheon & Team Are Truly Grounded With Success

The transition of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite Systems, otherwise known as NPOESS as well as to save breath, has now found the command, control and communication segment (C3S) transitioned to the operations and support team by Raytheon Company [NYSE:RTN], Northrup Grumman Corp. and NPOESS themselves. This is a true milestone and came to fruition after more than four years of development of the C3S and all of the hardware and software needed for the C3S for the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) mission.





Plus, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, NASA and the NPOES IPO also recently attained a significant ground segment achievement. They successfully communicated satellite commands from the NPP Mission Management Center (MMC) to the NPP spacecraft and sensors. The MMC was able to receive and analyze the NPP satellite telemetry data quite successfully. In fact, Raytheon completed this initiative on the first day of NPP testing. They are important and critical achievements, as they enable the compatibility of all systems elements and also confirm the program can continue onwards and upwards, all ultimately leading to the NPP launch in late 2009. Raytheon IIS is part of the Northrop Grumman Space Technology NPOESS team. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor and has overall responsibility for the program development effort.




The various locations involved include NOAA Satellite Operations Facility, Suitland, Maryland.; White Sands Complex, New Mexico; Air Force Weather Agency, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska; Raytheon facility, Aurora, Colorado.; Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. facility, Boulder, Colorado.; Raytheon Engineering and Depot Support, Indianapolis, Indiana.; and Svalbard Satellite Station in Norway.