Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has
been selected by NASA to participate in a six-month study team to define
various system requirements and design the architecture for the agency’s
Project Constellation Moon-to-Mars program. Raytheon, led by engineers at its
Missile Systems business, received a nearly $1 million contract for the
Concept Exploration and Refinement (CER) work, which could extend beyond the
initial six-month award period.
“Raytheon is pleased to be selected for the team that will help shape this
national space exploration priority. Our company has demonstrated its
capabilities in systems engineering and integration, and we can apply our
expertise in large system integration, hardware development, inserting
technology upgrades and mission assurance to space exploration,” said Louise
Francesconi, Missile Systems’ president.
“Our company has a long history of developing and producing affordable
systems with sustainable deployment. This is a major systems engineering
challenge, and Raytheon is offering a ‘system of systems’ approach, drawing
from across our company to meet the challenge,” said Michael Booen, Missile
Systems’ vice president of Advanced Missile Defense programs.
The CER contract provides the first opportunity for Missile Systems to
serve NASA as a prime contractor. Other Raytheon businesses perform work on a
variety of space agency programs, including U.S. National Polar-orbiting
Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), the James Webb Space Telescope and
the Mars Rover.
For this CER effort, Missile Systems will lead a team that will help NASA
define the requirements for the Moon-to-Mars mission, spanning all elements
from the crew transport launch system, long-duration habitation and surface
resources to propulsion systems, navigation, communications links. The team
also will consider spiral development upgrades that will take Project
Constellation from human space flight in low Earth orbit to extended duration
lunar exploration to human exploration on Mars’ surface.
Other Raytheon businesses participating in the effort include Raytheon
Technical Services Company, Network Centric Systems, Space and Airborne
Systems and Intelligence and Information Systems.
Raytheon Company, with 2003 sales of $18.1 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 78,000 people worldwide.
Contact:
Sara Hammond
520.794.7810
