Jane Edwards
NASA has awarded contracts to four companies to perform 12-month Phase A studies on sounders for microwave-based applications in support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Near-Earth Orbit Network program.
The NEON program is a collaborative mission of NOAA and NASA and covers next-generation microwave sounders in low-Earth orbit that provide data on the atmosphere’s physical properties that could be used by the National Weather Service in weather forecasting, the space agency said Thursday.
The vendors and the values of their firm-fixed-price contracts are listed below:
- Ball Aerospace & Technologies – $5 million
- Northrop Grumman – $4.9 million
- Orbital Micro Systems – $4.9 million
- Spire Global Subsidiary – $4.6 million
The SMBA instruments would fly aboard the NEON series of LEO satellites and the agencies expect the first launch to occur in 2030.
