Weekly GEOINT Community News

First Images Released From GOES-16 Now Available

NOAA’s new geostationary weather satellite, GOES-16, transmitted its first images back to Earth today. GOES-16 launched in November under the name GOES-R and was renamed after reaching orbit. GOES-16 provided four times the resolution of what’s available from the current operational GOES satellites. GOES-16 is also equipped with several different channels used to identify features other than clouds such as smoke, ash, and water vapor. Check out the images here.

Air Force’s GEO Flight 3 Launches

Last week, a vital missile reconnaissance satellite for the U.S. Air Force launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral. The rocket carried the $1.2 billion space based infrared system (SBIRS) GEO Flight 3 infrared imaging satellite. The SBIRS GEO Flight 3 missile defense observatory built for the Air Force will detect and track the infrared signatures of incoming enemy missiles twice as fast as the prior generation of satellites. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor, with Northrop Grumman as the payload integrator. The SBIRS team is led by the Remote Sensing Systems Directorate at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center.

UltiSat Wins Contract to Support NGA

UltiSat, global satellite communications service provider, received a task order from the Defense Information Systems Agency Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DISA-DITCO) to provide satellite bandwidth for geospatial intelligence missions. Under the order, the company will provide Ku-band capacity to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) Deployable Communications Systems.

Peer Intel

Northrop Grumman appointed James “Jim” Kowalski as a vice president of government relations and corporate lead executive for Louisiana. Before joining Northrop Grumman, Kowalski served more than 35 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as deputy commander, U.S. Strategic Command. He was promoted to Lieutenant General in 2011.

Photo Credit: NOAA