General Atomics Wins Space Force Contract for Second EWS Satellite

An the Electro-Optical Infrared (EO/IR) Weather System (EWS) satellite. Photo: General Atomics

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) has won a new contract from US Space Force’s (USSF) Space Systems Command (SSC) in the area of space weather. The deal aims to help alleviate U.S. government on-orbit risks through delivery of a second weather satellite and to provide three years of operations services for each of the two satellites to support the Electro-Optical Infrared (EO/IR) Weather System (EWS) program. GA-EMS announced the contract award on July 11.

This award modifies the current GA-EMS contract to design and deliver an operational EWS spacecraft with integrated EO/IR payloads to support the transition of the USSF’s aging Defense Meteorological Support Program (DMSP) on-orbit systems to a new generation of affordable, high performance, small weather satellites. As the prime contractor, GA-EMS is responsible for the spacecraft bus and EO/IR payload design development, build, assembly, integration and test.

“This contract is a testament to GA-EMS’ ability to design and deliver advanced EWS satellites that will provide timely, accurate weather data to support Department of Defense operations across all domains. We are currently working toward the delivery of the first EWS satellite and associated ground systems, with spacecraft build and EO/IR payload testing well underway. We are excited to begin the build and integration of a second EWS satellite to help support USSF efforts to extend EO/IR data collection capabilities as legacy DMSP satellites are retired,” Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS, said in a statement.