The contract has a significant potential for extensions, maintenance/support and technical updates after 5 years.
JPSS is a consolidated satellite program for weather and climate, and is considered to be the most important source for improved weather reports, civilian preparedness and climate research in the U.S. and the rest of the world in the years to come. Raytheon is the main contractor for building the JPSS ground segment, under this NASA contract. JPSS will be operated by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The contract is based on KSPTs standard products for reception of high-rate satellite data, as well as new development of systems for processing, intermediate storage, and distribution.
KSPT will deliver the systems for data reception on the various ground stations for JPSS (Svalbard, Alaska, New Mexico and Antarctica), as well as the systems for first-level data processing, data storage, and distribution for further processing to end-user data. This constitutes key portions of the JPSS ground segment, with strict requirements for performance and stability.
This contract, along with the contract awarded to KSPT a couple of years ago for delivery of similar systems to the European Space Agency (ESA) for receiving data from the Sentinel satellites, makes Kongsberg Spacetec a world-leading supplier of this type of equipment.
For more information about JPSS:
http://www.jpss.noaa.gov/mission.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Polar_Satellite_System