Harris Corporation [NYSE: HRS], has been awarded a 10-year, potential $736 million contract to provide a complete, end-to-end solution for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite — Series R Ground Segment (GOES-R GS) program. Harris is an international communications and information technology company,

The Harris team will design, develop, deploy and operate the GOES-R ground segment, which will receive and process satellite data, and generate and distribute weather data to more than 10,000 direct users. Harris will also provide the command and control of operational satellites. The Harris team is providing a service-based, open-architecture solution that will accommodate the anticipated 40-times increase in data to be ingested, processed and distributed. The first launch of a GOES-R series satellite is scheduled for 2015.

Today's GOES satellites provide the images and time-lapse sequences familiar to most Americans because they are commonly used in television weather forecasts. The satellites are the primary tool used by NOAA to detect and track hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornadoes and other severe weather in the continental U.S. and the western hemisphere. The next-generation GOES-R system will provide significantly improved image resolution and increase the rate of imagery coverage of earth surfaces from every 30 minutes to every 5 minutes in normal conditions, and every 30 seconds during periods of severe weather.

Harris is the prime contractor and systems integrator for the ground segment of the program. Members of the Harris GOES-R GS team include: Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc., Boeing Mission Operations, Carr Astronautics, Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc., Wyle Information Systems LLC, and Applied Research and Engineering Sciences.

Harris is a recognized leader in satellite ground data processing and mission command-and-control systems. The company's ground data processing systems consist of complex suites of hardware and software that receive sensor data from satellites and process it into useable environmental parameters under stringent timelines — turning the data into useable information. The company's command-and-control systems feature commercial-off-the-shelf design and high levels of flexibility. Designed for government and commercial applications, they support single-satellite missions as well as some of the largest and most complex satellite fleets deployed today.