Raytheon Company and NASA successfully achieved early National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) data transfer and system compatibility testing.
The 12 consecutive-day testing exercise took place between Svalbard, Norway, and the customer’s facilities at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md.
The test paved the way for the NPOESS NPP, a mission jointly managed by the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO) and NASA. NPP will fly early versions of key sensors and test the ground systems to reduce risks for the operational NPOESS. The NPOESS data is vital for future weather analysis and forecasting to support military operations, civil applications and scientific research.
“This testing of simulated NPOESS weather data is a significant risk-reduction activity for the NPOESS development,” said Mike Mader, vice president and NPOESS program lead for Raytheon. “The information NPOESS will provide is vital to government agencies for more accurate forecasts and to react faster and be better prepared when severe storms occur as with Hurricane Katrina.”
Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems is part of the Northrop Grumman Space Technology NPOESS team responsible for ground segments. Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems, with 2005 sales of $2.5 billion, is a leading-edge provider of information and intelligence solutions to the government, providing the right knowledge at the right time.
Raytheon Company, with 2005 sales of $21.9 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.
Note to Editors: Technical Information
The NPOESS data transfer test used 2.66GB of simulated science, diagnostic, and telemetry data collected from the NPP spacecraft and two key sensors, the advanced technology microwave sounder and the cross-track infrared sounder, while undergoing factory tests in Colorado. Raytheon routed the data from the ground station in Svalbard, Norway, sending it through a NASA/NOAA fiber network at 30Mbps across the Atlantic Ocean to GSFC in Greenbelt, Md., to simulate the soon-to-be-tested NPOESS wide area network.
