Weekly GEOINT Community News

NGA announces final results of MagQuest Competition, Northrop Grumman to Support NASA’s Artemis Missions with Motors for Orion Spacecraft’s Launch Abort System, General Dynamics Information Technology Awarded $364 Million Enterprise IT Contract by GSA, and More

MNKO-10.19

NGA Announces Final Results of MagQuest Competition

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) announced the final results of MagQuest, a $2.1 million competition to advance how the Earth’s magnetic field is measured. The final of this global open innovation challenge invited a select group of teams to iterate and refine their designs and testing plans for geomagnetic data collection methodologies. The teams had six months to prepare a submission that demonstrated completion of major design decisions, described specific hardware and software selections, detailed testing approaches to mitigate risks, and provided evidence in support of overall performance. This final phase also offered the opportunity to interact with subject matter experts to produce the strongest results. Following team presentations at the virtual Design Review Event, the judges nominated the winners. The first-place winner, Iota Technology, was awarded $350,000. The second-place winners Spire Global, SBQuantum, and University of Colorado Boulder received $225,000. And the runners-up, the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium and Stellar Solutions each received $50,000.

Northrop Grumman to Support NASA’s Artemis Missions with Motors for Orion Spacecraft’s Launch Abort System

Northrop Grumman Corporation will continue supporting NASA’s Artemis missions by providing six additional abort motors and attitude control motors (ACM) for the Orion human spaceflight capsule’s Launch Abort System (LAS), under an agreement with Lockheed Martin, Orion’s prime contractor. These motors will be used for six crewed Artemis missions III-VIII and are the first procured under the new Orion production contract. The Launch Abort System is a three-motor stack consisting of an abort motor, an attitude control motor and the jettison motor all mounted atop the Orion spacecraft crew capsule, and the combined Orion and LAS sit atop of NASA’s Space Launch System.

General Dynamics Information Technology Awarded $364 Million Enterprise IT Contract by GSA

General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) was awarded a contract by the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) to continue providing digital enterprise services for Special Operations Forces (SOF). GDIT will design and implement technology capabilities to enable rapid data analysis and dissemination of critical operational intelligence in response to emerging threats. The SOF Information Technology Enterprise Contract J (SITEC J) is a single award with a total estimated value of $364 million. Under the SITEC J contract, GDIT will support local and remote connections to a global Department of Defense network. The work will leverage both existing and new data centers as well as new instances of cloud computing. Through a hybrid data storage approach and the introduction of automation, SOF units will be able to consolidate, analyze, and disseminate information in real time as they protect U.S. interests.

Space Development Agency Selects L3Harris Technologies to Develop Defense Satellite System

L3Harris Technologies will develop and integrate an end-to-end satellite system under a $193 million firm fixed-price contract for the Space Development Agency. L3Harris will support the agency with technology that will protect against advanced missiles, such as hypersonic. Total period of performance runs through 2025 and covers delivery of four space vehicles for launch within 24 months. L3Harris will develop wide field-of-view mission payloads, various space communication and network solutions, and inter-satellite optical links on the vehicles.

BAE Systems Launches GXP Fusion Application to Increase Situational Awareness

BAE Systems launched its new GXP Fusion software, which leverages multiple intelligence sources to develop a single picture, simplifying complex data challenges for the modern analyst. Developed by the company’s Geospatial eXploitation Products (GXP) group and delivered with the existing GXP Xplorer Platform, this new geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) application fuses data sources and displays data connections in a customizable dashboard. GXP Xplorer is an application that makes it easy to locate, retrieve, and share geospatial data.

Peer Intel

Northrop Grumman’s board of directors elected Tom Jones, corporate vice president and president, Aeronautics Systems, effective Jan. 1, 2021. Jones will succeed Janis Pamiljans, who has announced his intent to retire on Feb. 26, 2021.

Featured Image: Northrop Grumman’s abort motor and attitude control motor supply the power that enables the Orion spacecraft crew to propel to safety in the event of an anomaly on the launch pad. | Photo illustration credit: NASA

Posted in: Monday News Kickoffs   Tagged in: Data, Innovation, NASA, NGA, Satellites

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