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Boeing gets contract to process shuttle radar data BOEING NEWS RELEASE Posted: February 27, 2006 Boeing has received a $3.5 million follow-on task order from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to enhance the digital topographic data collected by the space shuttle Endeavour. This award to Boeing under NGA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) program brings Boeing's total SRTM contract awards to more than $35 million. The task order was awarded under NGA's Global Geospatial Intelligence (GGI) contract that was designed to enhance NGA's ability to provide critical, time-sensitive, intelligence and geospatial information for the Department of Defense. Boeing is a prime contractor for GGI, which has a potential value of $750 million over 10 years. "This award demonstrates the continuing successful partnership between Boeing and NGA," said Brian Knutsen, general manager of Boeing's Space and Intelligence Systems Mission Systems. "The availability of this information to Department of Defense agencies will enable greater use of data that was collected by the shuttle radar, and it moves the team one step closer to a full global data set." This follow-on tasking, known as Void Fill, will update terrain models in geographic locations where Endeavour's radar sensor had difficulty collecting data in February 2000. The enhancements include the removal of certain radar processing anomalies and filling areas with data from alternate elevation data sources. Boeing is one of two GGI prime contractor teams that were awarded initial SRTM data finishing task orders. To date, the team has produced more than 9,000 cells of Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) and enhanced approximately 7,000 cells over portions of four continents with each cell being one degree of latitude by one degree of longitude in size. Boeing is responsible for the overall project management of its team and development of the interactive editing system interface and editing software that is being used to produce the data at Boeing. The SRTM mission aboard Endeavour used radar sensors to collect the most detailed and accurate height measurements ever gathered for such a large area. The goal of the SRTM production program is to produce digital topographic data for 80 percent of the Earth's land surface. Automation of most tasks has reduced editing time and minimized production costs, as compared to previous systems for producing similar data. A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world's largest space and defense businesses. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $30.5 billion business. It provides network-centric system solutions to its global military, government, and commercial customers. It is a leading provider of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems; the world's largest military aircraft manufacturer; the world's largest satellite manufacturer and a leading provider of space-based communications; the primary systems integrator for U.S. missile defense; NASA's largest contractor; and a global leader in sustainment solutions and launch services. |
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With two weeks until its arrival at the red planet, NASA and Lockheed Martin officials hold this Feb. 24 news conference on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The briefing explains how the MRO spacecraft will fire its engines to enter into orbit around Mars and the mission's scientific goals to examine the planet like never before.
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As part of Lockheed Martin's plans for the Crew Exploration Vehicle, the company has announced that final assembly and testing of the capsules will be performed at the Kennedy Space Center's Operations and Checkout Building. Lockheed Martin officials, Florida's lieutenant governor, the local congressman and a county economic development leader held this press conference Feb. 22 to unveil the plans.
The space shuttle program performed its first dazzling nighttime launch with Challenger's August 1983 mission. A cockpit camera mounted beside commander Dick Truly captured amazing footage of night turning to day inside the shuttle from the brilliant flame of ascent. STS-8 also featured the first African-American astronaut, Guion Bluford. Challenger's astronauts tell the story of their six-day mission, which deployed an Indian satellite, used the robot arm to look at the orbiter's belly and examined the glow around the shuttle, during this narrated post-flight film.
The seventh flight of the space shuttle is remembered for breaking the gender barrier for U.S. spaceflight. Sally Ride flew into space and the history books with her historic June 1983 mission, becoming America's first woman astronaut. STS-7 also launched a pair of commercial communications spacecraft, then deployed a small platform fitted with experiments and camera package that captured iconic pictures of Challenger flying above the blue Earth and black void of space. The crew members narrate highlights from the mission in this post-flight film presentation.