NOAA AWARDS $56 MILLION CONTRACT TO COLORADO COMPANY FOR ALASKA SATELLITE GROUND STATION SUPPORT

The Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has awarded a contract with an estimated value of approximately $56 million to SMI International of Colorado Springs, Colo., for the operation and maintenance of the Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The Fairbanks station is part of the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA Satellite and Information Services). The Fairbanks station provides support to both the operational NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) program and the Department of Defense's operational Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). The contract is a fixed price, award-term contract, with the award amount for the base year $6,299,712, and a total of $55,843,135 for the potential ten-year contract term. The contract is written for a base year, four option years, and up to five award term years.

SMI is a subsidiary of the Aleut Corporation, an Alaskan Native firm. SMI offers experience in operation and maintenance of satellite tracking facilities, including extensive experience working in an Arctic environment. “The proposed management team is highly qualified and technically well-equipped to manage the station,” said Lance Seman, NOAA manager of the Fairbanks station.

The price offered by SMI is highly competitive and will help the station to realize significant savings over the life of the contract,” said Ed Rockenstire, NOAA, contracting officer. “SMI has also increased the opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses at the station by subcontracting substantial portions of their direct labor to such firms.”

The Fairbanks CDA is critical to the continued operations of the POES and DMSP programs through their expected operational lifetimes over the next 10 to 12 years. The station will also support the GOES-9 satellite when it is activated for use over the Western Pacific next year.

The NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NOAA Satellite and Information Services) is the nation’s primary source of space-based meteorological and climate data. NOAA Satellite and Information Services operates the nation's environmental satellites, which are used for weather forecasting, climate monitoring and other environmental applications such as fire detection, ozone monitoring and sea surface temperature measurements.

NOAA Satellite and Information Services also operates three data centers, which house global data bases in climatology, oceanography, solid earth geophysics, marine geology and geophysics, solar-terrestrial physics, and paleoclimatology.

To learn more about NOAA Satellite and Information Services, please visit

http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov.