Officials at Lockheed Martin announced
today that the Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) has entered into
a contract agreement with Raytheon Polar Services Company (RPSC) to provide
managed IP Data services in support of the National Science Foundation’s
(NSF’s) Polar programs.

Under the terms of the $885,000, four-year contract, CSOC will install,
operate and maintain IP-based connectivity from the University of Miami and
the COMSAT facility at Clarksburg, MD to the RPSC Network Operations Center
(NOC) in Englewood, Colorado.
CSOC will then provide dedicated and redundant
T1 connectivity from the NOC to the Antarctic Polar Station via NASA’s
extensive Wide Area Network, which will include standard Internet
connectivity.

“The contract with Raytheon exemplifies CSOC’s commitment to
commercializing government services as a cost-savings mechanism,” said Doug
Tighe, program manager for CSOC. “By selling the available capacity on NASA’s
Wide Area Network (WAN), we are able to revenue share with NASA, thus
generating additional commercial income to support government services.”

Connectivity has been accomplished using routers connected to two
dedicated, full-time full-duplex T1 (1.544Mbps) leased circuits. The routers
are capable of supporting DS3 (45Mbps) circuit if and when RPSC desires an
upgrade.

The NSF’s Polar programs will utilize these CSOC services to enable
scientists to transfer, rapidly and efficiently, the large quantities of
scientific data gathered each day at the South Pole’s McMurdo Ground Station.
The new capability will supplement coverage provided by NASA and U.S. Air
Force satellites.

CSOC is a $3-billion-plus contract awarded by NASA to Lockheed Martin, who
serves as the prime contractor to provide end-to-end space operations Mission
and Data Services to both NASA and non-NASA customers. CSOC manages NASA’s
data collection, telemetry and communications operations that support
Earth-orbiting satellites, planetary exploration, and human space flight
activities. Services include data acquisition from spacecraft, data
transmission to end-users, data processing and storage, ground and space
communications, and mission control center operations.

CSOC is part of Lockheed Martin Space Operations (LMSO), a business unit
of Lockheed Martin Technology Services headquartered in Cherry Hill, New
Jersey. LMSO, a high-tech engineering and science services firm, employs about
4,000 engineers, scientists and support personnel.
Services include managing
CSOC; software and hardware engineering for the Space Shuttle and
International Space Station; mission operations and planning systems design,
development, and integration; and human life sciences research.