Ball’s (NYSE: BALL) aerospace business has received a potential 15-year, $486.9 million contract from NASA to build a sounder instrument for the space agency’s Geostationary Extended Observations satellite program with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies will provide spacecraft integration and post-delivery support for the GeoXO Sounder under the cost-plus-award-fee contract, NASA said Tuesday.
GXS is a hyperspectral infrared instrument that comes with numerous “channels” used for detecting infrared light wavelengths and is designed to help the National Weather Service enhance weather prediction by delivering real-time data on the distribution of temperature, winds and atmospheric pressure over the Western Hemisphere.
The contract includes 10 years of on-orbit operations support and five years of on-orbit storage for each flight instrument and covers testing, support launch, evaluation, calibration and maintenance of the instrument and ground support equipment at NOAA’s satellite operations facility in Suitland, Maryland.
Ball Aerospace will perform work at its facility in Boulder, Colorado, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
NOAA and NASA expect the GeoXO satellite system to be in place by early 2030s to provide Earth observations from geostationary orbit to help address weather and climate challenges in the U.S.
In February, NASA solicited proposals for the development of GeoXO Sounder instruments.
Ball Aerospace is currently in the middle of an approximately $5.55 billion acquisition deal with BAE Systems. The British defense contractor looks to accelerate its space market strategy and expand its technology offerings for the U.S. government through its purchase of the Ball business.
