Raytheon completes first phase of communications upgrade for NPOESS

Raytheon Company has achieved a significant program milestone for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) by successfully completing the first phase of a major communications upgrade for Antarctica.

The upgrade of the off-continent satellite communications link at McMurdo Station more than triples the bandwidth available for scientific research, weather prediction, and health and safety of those stationed at McMurdo. The project is part of the NPOESS command, control, and communications segment.

"This upgrade paves the way for a second major communications upgrade planned for 2012 in preparation for the use of McMurdo Station as one of 15 NPOESS ground stations worldwide," said Mike Mader, vice president of Raytheon's NPOESS program. "NPOESS will be significant to monitoring global environmental conditions and will collect and disseminate data related to weather, atmosphere, oceans, land and near-space environment."

The McMurdo project consisted of upgrading one of the two satellite earth station antennas located at Black Island as well as changing satellite service and terrestrial network vendors providing the 10 Mbps (megabit per second) service for McMurdo. The work began in early October 2007 as Raytheon Polar Services Company upgraded the electrical systems at Black Island. The antenna was fitted with a new Ku-band feed and electronics by Raytheon Information and Intelligence Systems (IIS) in late November and the new system was placed into operation on Dec. 23, 2007.

"It has been very exciting to see the collaboration among the National Science Foundation, the NPOESS prime contractor Northrop Grumman, and the NPOESS Integrated Program Office come together to provide this higher bandwidth to the community of McMurdo," said Joe Paciaroni, Raytheon IIS manager for the McMurdo project. "The efforts of Raytheon Polar Services Company and Raytheon came together ahead of schedule and demonstrate the commitment Raytheon gives to our government customers."

Raytheon is part of the Northrop Grumman Corporation-led NPOESS team. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor and has overall responsibility for the NPOESS program development effort.