NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has selected Lockheed Martin Corp. of Littleton, Colorado, to develop a lightning mapping instrument as part of NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite program. 

This cost-plus-award-fee contract is valued at approximately $297.1 million. It includes the development of two flight instruments as well as options for two additional units. The anticipated period of performance for this contract includes support for 10 years of on-orbit operations and 5 years of on-orbit storage, for a total of 15 years for each flight model. The work will take place at Lockheed Martin’s facilities in Littleton, Colorado, and Sunnyvale, California, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The GeoXO Lightning Mapper (LMX) will detect, locate and measure the intensity, duration and extent of lightning flashes. LMX will continue critical observations provided by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites – R (GOES-R) Series Geostationary Lightning Mapper. Data from LMX will be used to analyze severe storms, increase warning lead time for hazardous weather, and provide earlier indication of impending lightning strikes to the ground. The data will also be used for hurricane intensity prediction, wildfire detection and response, precipitation estimation and to mitigate aviation hazards.

Forecasters need lightning information from geostationary orbit because the data are available where other sources are more limited, especially over oceans and in mountainous and rural areas. The data are also available more frequently than local radar and fill in radar coverage gaps. 

The contract scope includes the tasks and deliverables necessary to design, analyze, develop, fabricate, integrate, test, verify, and evaluate the LMX; support the launch; supply and maintain the instrument ground support equipment; and support mission operations at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Maryland.

The GeoXO Program is the follow-on to the GOES-R Series Program. The GeoXO satellite system will advance Earth observations from geostationary orbit. The mission will supply vital information to address major environmental challenges of the future in support of weather, ocean, and climate operations in the United States. Advanced capabilities from GeoXO will help address our changing planet and the evolving needs of the nation’s data users. NOAA and NASA are working to ensure these critical observations are in place by the early 2030s when the GOES-R Series nears the end of its operational lifetime.

Together, NOAA and NASA oversee the development, launch, testing and operation of all the satellites in the GeoXO Program. NOAA funds and manages the program, operations, and data products. On behalf of NOAA, NASA and commercial partners develop and build the instruments and spacecraft and launch the satellites.

For more information on the GeoXO program, visit: 

https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/geoxo 

Liz Vlock
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
elizabeth.a.vlock@nasa.gov

Jeremy Eggers
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
757-824-2958
jeremy.l.eggers@nasa.gov

John Leslie
NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service
202-527-3504
nesdis.pa@noaa.gov