Lockheed Martin wins NASA contract

Greenbelt, Md. -- The Lockheed Martin Corp. has been awarded a contract to build a solar ultraviolet imager for the next generation of U.S. geostationary satellites.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites Program, awarded the $178 million contract Monday.

Lockheed Martin will design and develop the instrument that is to be launched in 2014 aboard the first satellite in the GOES-R series.

Officials said the instrument will provide broadband imaging in the extreme ultraviolet wavelength to monitor dynamic features on the sun, as well as allowing improved measurements of solar features. Such data are used for geomagnetic storm forecasts and predictions of solar energetic particle events related to flares.

While NOAA funds, operates and manages the GOES-R Program, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the acquisition of GOES-R instruments for NOAA.

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