Ball Aerospace to build NOAA's Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 spacecraft

On behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA has awarded a delivery order under the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition III (Rapid III) contract to Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, for the Space Weather Follow On-Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) spacecraft. This is a firm fixed-price delivery order in the amount of $96.9 million issued under the Rapid III Spacecraft Catalog. The period of performance runs now through March 31, 2025. The contractor shall design and fabricate the SWFO-L1 spacecraft bus, integrate the government-furnished instruments and perform satellite-level testing, support and training of the Flight Operations Team, as well as in-orbit satellite check-out and mission operations support. The Rapid III contract provides a rapid and flexible means to procure spacecraft in support of the scientific and technology development goals of NASA and other federal agencies. The SWFO-L1 satellite, which is planned to launch in 2024 as a rideshare with the NASA Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, will collect solar wind data and coronal imagery to support NOAA's mission to monitor and forecast space weather events.

NOAA is responsible for the Space Weather Follow-On program. NASA is the program's flight system procurement agent, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the lead for this acquisition.