The Air Force has completed its Nunn-McCurdy review of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) and concluded that, yes, the system is important to national security and should continue. However, the Air Force and NOAA have made some significant changes to the project, whose cost had ballooned to $13.8 billion, according to Space News (subscription required). (A less-detailed Reuters article is also available.) Instead of a five-satellite system, the NPOESS contract with prime contractor Northrop Grumman will cover two satellites, with an option for two more. A contract with Boeing for one NPOESS instrument, Conical Microwave Imager/Sounder, has been terminated, and will be recompeted. These changes are designed to bring the cost of NPOESS down to $11.5 billion, which is still far more than the $6.8 billion the program was originally projected to cost.
The House Science Committee just added a full committee hearing for Thursday at 2:30 pm on “The Future of NPOESS: Results of the Nunn-McCurdy Review of NOAA’s Weather Satellite Program”. Scheduled witnesses are Air Force undersecretary Ronald Sega, NOAA administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., and NASA administrator Michael Griffin.
