NOAA has awarded the Space Weather Follow On (SWFO) Antenna Network (SAN) contract to KBR WYLE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, LLC (KBR) in Columbia, Maryland. The cost plus fixed-fee contract has a total value of $51,217,249, with a five-year performance period. KBR will be responsible for providing an antenna network and related capabilities within the U.S. and overseas to continuously receive mission data from the SWFO-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) observatory and to support SWFO-L1 observatory operations by providing telemetry, command, and ranging services.
KBR will perform the work at their facilities in Greenbelt, Maryland in addition to the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, Maryland. KBR WYLE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, LLC will also install a 13 meter antenna at NOAA’s Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station located in Wallops, Virginia, and a second 13 meter antenna at the NOAA Consolidated Backup, located in Fairmont, West Virginia.
The SAN is the ground segment that provides vital communications with the SWFO-L1 observatory. The SAN is being designed, developed, and tested to support the launch and operations of the SWFO-L1 spacecraft, as a rideshare on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe mission, currently scheduled for February 2025.
NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service (NESDIS) provides space weather observations to the NOAA National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center located in Boulder, Colorado. The SWFO-L1 observatory will continue to provide continuous measurements of the space environment, including observations of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, and contributing to accurate forecasts of space weather disturbances.
NESDIS is responsible for the oversight and management of the SWFO Program, a parent program to the SWFO-L1 Observatory Mission, at its Greenbelt and Silver Spring, Maryland offices.