Some $1.09 Billion At Stake In This Contract, More Billions Are Possible In Later Action
The Boeing Co. [BA] renewed its protest of a NASA-NOAA contract award to Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] for the GOES-R satellite program.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the government umpire on contract protests, took no action when Boeing protested the initial GOES-R award to Lockheed in December, to give NASA and NOAA time to reconsider the award.
Those agencies did that, and then again announced that Lockheed would get the work, prompting Boeing to renew the protest. Under GAO procedures, the umpire agency has 100 days to consider the case, so that a GAO decision is expected by Aug. 26, or earlier.
It is not the first time that Boeing has protested a major contract award to a rival bidder. For example, Boeing protested the award of a roughly $38 billion contract for aerial refueling tanker planes to Northrop Grumman Corp. [NOC] and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. unit, Airbus Industrie. The GAO upheld the protest on multiple grounds, and the contract will be rebid in coming months.
In the GOES-R competition, eventually up to four satellites worth billions of dollars could be the ultimate prize.
Boeing until now has built the GOES, or geostationary orbiting satellite series.
After the initial award to Lockheed, Boeing said it learned little in a post-bidding debriefing by government aides after the first award to Lockheed, and still thought its bid was superior. And Boeing did not receive any NASA debriefing after the second contract award to Lockheed, with the agency only responding in writing.
The basic contract is for two satellites with options for two additional satellites. The total estimated value of the basic contract, including the options, is $1.09 billion. Officials said a separate contract to build the GOES-R ground system will be announced later this year.
Another contractor in the original GOES-R bidding contest, Northrop, didn’t protest to the GAO.
The GOES-R satellite series, poised to begin launching in 2015, will double the clarity of today’s satellite imagery and provide more than 20 times the information.
GOES-R will improve the monitoring of sea-surface temperatures and provide more data to NOAA’s hurricane forecasters, giving them sharper images of storms every 30 seconds, instead of every 7.5 minutes which the current geostationary satellites provide.
GOES-R will feature the first-ever, space-based detection system for lightning activity over land and water. The new satellites also are expected to bring other key benefits, including data that will improve warnings for heat stress and bolster forecasts for unhealthy air quality, and advanced solar-monitoring instruments for space weather forecasts and warnings of solar storms.
NOAA funds, manages and will operate the GOES-R program. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center oversees the acquisition of the GOES-R spacecraft and instruments for NOAA.
NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages coastal and marine resources.