NOAA AWARDS $115 MILLION CONTRACT
TO SUPPORT OPERATIONAL SPACE, GROUND SYSTEMS

NOAA officials today announced a $115 million contract award with Riverside Technology, Inc., of Fort Collins, Colo., to provide technical support, systems engineering and engineering services for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Services. The contract will support NOAA’s operational space systems, including the current and next-generation polar and geostationary environmental satellites that supply data for the weather and climate forecasts, and the ground systems, which comprise the command, control and communications segment, along with the product generation, distribution and archiving.

The contract has a 12-month base period, with four additional 12-month option periods. The total value of the contract, including the option years, is $115 million.

The contract will support the program offices for the future National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Operational Satellite System, or NPOESS, and the next-generation Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R). The contractor will provide strategic planning to resolve space and ground system issues, and design requirement analysis, systems engineering, data management, contract administration and acquisition support.

Support services will also be geared toward NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service’s headquarters, Office of Systems Development and Chief Information Officer.

“NOAA’s satellites play a major role in the success of today’s weather and climate forecasts,” said Mary E. Kizca, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service. ”We need solid, reliable support to keep these satellite systems operating, and we’ll look to Riverside Technology, Inc. to provide this critical service.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

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