The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) a three-year, $284 million sole-source extension on the ground segment contract supporting Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) -R Series weather satellites — bringing new technologies that support increased capabilities.

Artistic rendition of the GOES-R satellite.

The three year contract extension will modernize the ground-computing infrastructure and reduce the IT footprint, laying the foundation for future migration to cloud technologies. This contract also extends the partnership with NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) to 13 years and brings the total contract value to $1.65 billion.

The GOES-R ground segment controls and commands NOAA’s two new geostationary weather satellites, GOES-16 (East) and GOES-17 (West), and will control GOES-T and GOES-U satellites after their launches. The ground segment controls the Harris-built main payload, the Advanced Baseline Imager, and other onboard instruments.

It also collects and processes 3.5 terabytes of science data every day that is used for severe weather warnings, real-time fire detection and other life-saving information used by the U.S. National Weather Service and more than 10,000 direct users worldwide. Weather data and products are generated in less than 30 seconds, and space weather products in 1.8 seconds.  

The first and second satellites in the GOES-R Series launched in 2016 and 2018, and both are operational.