[Satellite Today 12-19-08] Lockheed Martin has been notified by NASA to stop work on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) satellite, Lockheed Martin spokesman Gary Napier confirmed for Satellite News Dec. 19.
    The notice was due to a protest Boeing Co. filed with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the $1.1 billion contract awarded to Lockheed Martin to build the satellites. The GAO is the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress and has the authority to review government acquisition actions and recommend corrective actions, including termination of improper awards.
    The decision to file the complaint was made, “after careful consideration, and was based on our belief, in light of the information that has been provided to this point, that we offered a superior proposal under the disclosed evaluation criteria,” Boeing spokeswoman Diana Ball said.
    NASA, in coordination with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Dec. 2, selected Lockheed Martin Space Systems to build two satellites for NOAA’s GOES-R program. The first launch of the GOES-R series is scheduled for 2015. Data from the NOAA satellites will be used for weather forecasting and environmental, space and solar science.