McMurdo has received a potential five-year, $6.67 million contract from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide fourth generation search-and-rescue ground stations for NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite program.
The company said Monday it will build Low Earth Orbit/Medium Earth Orbit local user terminals to help search-and-rescue teams locate distressed individuals in expanded geographic regions such as the continental U.S., Alaska and parts of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
McMurdo will also install the terminals, provide training and manuals, perform related maintenance, conduct engineering support and manage programs under the contract.
The company also fielded two MEOLUTs in Florida and Hawaii as part of the NOAA Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking program under the international Cospas-Sarsat system.
Mark Cianciolo, general manager of aerospace, defense and government programs at McMurdo, said the new terminal combines the legacy LEOSAR and next-generation MEOSAR systems to update NOAA’s SARSAT systems.