NPOESS Command, Control and Communications Segment Declared Operational

Released on Wednesday, October 31, 2007

SUITLAND, Md., Oct. 31, 2007 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN), Northrop Grumman Corp. and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Integrated Program Office (IPO) successfully completed the transition of the NPOESS command, control and communications segment (C3S) to the operations and support team.

This milestone culminated more than four years of development of the C3S and includes all C3S hardware and software needed for the NPOESS Preparatory Project (NPP) mission.

Additionally, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, NASA and the NPOESS IPO recently attained a significant ground segment achievement by successfully communicating satellite commands from the NPP Mission Management Center (MMC) to the NPP spacecraft and sensors. The MMC was able to receive and analyze the NPP satellite telemetry data successfully.

Raytheon accomplished this critical initiative on the first day of NPP testing. These tests are an important achievement because they enable the compatibility of all system elements, and they confirm that the program can continue on, ultimately leading to the NPP launch in late 2009.

"These accomplishments mark significant progress in the command, control and communications of the NPOESS program," said Michael Mader, vice president and NPOESS program director for Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems. "Commanding the NPP for the first time validates all the hard work that we have done and marks another major accomplishment for the IPO, NASA and contractor team."

The first stage of testing sent satellite-commanding instructions from the MMC at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md., to the NPP spacecraft and sensors at the Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. facility in Boulder, Colo. Raytheon executed the first attempt at this procedure. This marked the first time that the NPOESS MMC was used to command the spacecraft, further ensuring that the MMC will accomplish the command tasks successfully.

Raytheon IIS is part of the Northrop Grumman Space Technology NPOESS team. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor and has overall responsibility for the program development effort.