NASA Awards Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor Contract

WASHINGTON, July 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has awarded a contract to
the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space
Physics for the development of the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor,
or TSIS, a key instrument for the future National Polar-orbiting Operational
Environmental Satellite System, known as NPOESS. The total estimated value of
the cost, no-fee contract is approximately $42 million.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

The contractor will be responsible for the design, engineering analyses,
hardware and software development, fabrication, integration, algorithm
development, test, evaluation and support for integration of the instrument
with the NPOESS spacecraft.

The sensor will continue key climate measurements of solar irradiance that
contribute to determining the Earth's energy balance and understanding how
Earth's climate responds to solar variability. The sensor will fly on the
NPOESS, C1 mission.

NASA is developing the TSIS Flight Model 1 under a reimbursable agreement with
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. NPOESS is a joint
program to develop the next generation of polar-orbiting operational
environmental satellites that form the basis for weather forecasting, and is
co-funded by NOAA and the Department of Defense, with NASA as a technology
provider. The NPOESS program is managed by the interagency Integrated Program
Office.

NOAA funds the instrument while NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in
Greenbelt, Md., manages the acquisition of the instrument for NOAA.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

SOURCE NASA

Sonja Alexander, NASA Headquarters, Washington, +1-202-358-1761,
sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov, or Cynthia M. O'Carroll, NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md., +1-301-286-4647, cynthia.m.ocarroll@nasa.gov