Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Manoj Kumar
NASA has chosen Lockheed Martin Corp. of Littleton, Colorado, to construct spacecraft for NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program.
The contract, valued at approximately $2.27 billion, is a cost-plus-award-fee agreement. It includes the development of three spacecraft with options for four additional units.
The contract encompasses support for 10 years of on-orbit operations and five years of on-orbit storage, totaling 15 years for each spacecraft.
Credit: NOAA
Construction and support activities will occur at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Littleton and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Credit: NASA
The GeoXO constellation will consist of three operational satellites—east, west, and central. Each satellite will be geostationary and three-axis stabilized, hosting three instruments.
Credit: NOAA
The central satellite will carry an infrared sounder and atmospheric composition instrument, while the east and west satellites will include an imager, lightning mapper, and ocean color instrument.
The contract includes design, development, integration, testing, launch support, and mission operations. It also covers engineering development units, ground support equipment, and simulators.
Credit: NOAA
GeoXO aims to advance Earth observations from geostationary orbit, supporting weather, ocean, and climate operations. This mission will provide critical data to address environmental challenges and evolving user needs by the early 2030s, as the GOES-R Series nears the end of its operational life.
Credit: NOAA