Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon (RTN) is helping to build NASA's newest spaceship.
On Monday, Raytheon announced that it has received a third contract from NASA to develop a Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS) spacecraft. JPSS is a joint program of NOAA and NASA that provides critical observations to improve the accuracy of weather forecasting. Within it, the VIIRS collects data in 22 spectral bands, allowing scientists to understand global weather and climate patterns in greater detail.
This will be the third VIIRS delivery for Raytheon -- which has already built one of the instruments for NASA -- launched aboard the Suomi NPP spacecraft in October 2011. A second VIIRS is currently under construction.
Financial details of the NASA contract were not disclosed. However, given that NASA paid Raytheon approximately $314 million to build the first two VIIRS units, today's announced contract likely approximates about $157 million in value.
