Raytheon Gains $441.9 Million Sole Source Multiple Kill Vehicle Contract

The Missile Defense Agency gave Raytheon Co. [RTN] unit Missile Systems a sole source contract worth up to $441.9 million to develop and test the Multiple Kill Vehicle payload system, the Pentagon announced.

The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract will involve work performed in Tucson, Ariz. by December 2011.

The contract will be incrementally funded.

An initial year-long task order is valued at $54 million, for work running from Saturday to Nov. 1 next year.

GeoEye Signs Contract with Telespazio as New Commercial Regional Affiliate for GeoEye-1 Satellite

GeoEye, Inc. [GEOY] signed a multi-year agreement with Rome-based Telespazio S.p.A., appointing Telespazio as GeoEye’s new commercial regional affiliate for Europe and North Africa.

Telespazio, a Finmeccanica/Thales company, will produce, market and sell Earth imagery and related products and services from GeoEye’s newest high-resolution satellite, GeoEye-1, to customers in Europe and North Africa.

GeoEye-1 was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Sept. 6 and is expected to be fully operational this fall.

Telespazio’s GeoEye-1 exclusive imagery sales rights begin as soon as GeoEye-1 becomes operational.

Beginning next year, Telespazio will also have access to the IKONOS satellite and collect, produce, market and sell Earth imagery and related products to customers in Europe and North Africa.

Telespazio’s IKONOS rights will include the exclusive right to sell IKONOS imagery collected after Dec. 31. The GeoEye-1 and IKONOS satellite imagery collection, processing and sales rights granted to Telespazio are subject to prior U.S. Government approval of the multi-year agreement.

The multi-year agreement with Telespazio marks the first of its kind under GeoEye’s commercial regional affiliate business model, which was developed as a new service offering to augment the global commercialization of GeoEye-1 imagery.

GeoEye-1 collects imagery that can distinguish objects on the Earth’s surface as small as 0.41-meter or about 16 inches in size in its black and white mode, and 1.65-meter resolution in color (or multispectral) imagery. Through a proprietary production capability, commercial customers will have access to color imagery at the .5 meter resolution, which no other commercial imaging company will be able to match.

Lockheed Gains $30 Million Self-Awareness Space Situational Awareness Deal

The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin Corp. [LMT] a $30 million contract for the development phase of the Self-Awareness Space Situational Awareness (SASSA) technology demonstration program.

Lockheed will develop a technology demonstration payload to provide tactical space situational awareness with dedicated communications.

The surveillance system will increase awareness of threats to U.S. satellites and demonstrate the capability to control and manage up to eight instruments for operational systems implementation.

The Space Superiority Systems Wing of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. initiated the program after recognizing an emerging need to protect vital defense satellite systems that ensure national security.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is one of two companies selected for the two year development phase resulting in a downselect for spacecraft integration and on-orbit operations based on technical, cost and schedule performance that is scheduled to run through 2011, with options for 2012 and 2013.

NASA Gives $206.5 Million Contract To United Space Alliance; Value Of Work May Rise To $371 Million In One-Year Extension

NASA awarded a $206.5 million contract to United Space Alliance to provide mission and flight crew operations support for the International Space Station and human space exploration activities after the space shuttle is retired.

The two-year, 11-month Integrated Mission Operations Contract covers ground-based human spaceflight operations capability development and execution, including support to mission planning and preparation, crew and flight controller training, and real-time mission execution.

The initial contract period runs from Saturday to Sept. 30, 2011.

The cost-plus-award-fee contract provides for an optional one-year extension, which would increase the total value of the contract to $371 million. The extension period, if exercised, would be from Oct. 1, 2011, to Sept. 30, 2012.