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ATLAS Awarded NOAA IDIQ Contract For GSaaS Services

July 13, 2022

Space Operations announced that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded it an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for space communication services. The multi-year, multi-million dollar contract will use ATLAS to provide Ground Station as a Service (GSaaS) capabilities to power NOAA missions using ATLAS’ Freedom™ Software and its Global Antenna Network.

ATLAS is the first company to implement NOAA’s use of a global cloud-based commercial GSaaS solution. Since first contracting ATLAS for their Freedom Software and ground station services 5+ years ago, they have successfully completed 52,000 passes with a 98+% availability. All of this while averaging a strikingly low latency of under 26 seconds using a geographically diverse, non-data center colocated set of ground stations.

The contract between ATLAS and NOAA builds upon a longstanding history of exceptional service by ATLAS supporting NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service (NESDIS) missions since 2017. ATLAS will continue to provide space communications services (data delivery) for three NOAA missions which focus on climate research. In the future, ATLAS looks forward to onboarding additional NOAA missions.

“Our latest agreement with NOAA represents a three-tiered victory for ATLAS. It reinforces the reliability of our global ground network, demonstrates the adaptability of our Freedom Software, and most importantly it is a testament to our outstanding client service experience. All three have positioned our company to connect humanity through space, and all are part of the creativity and skills that are helping to propel space data transfer into the future,” said Sean McDaniel, ATLAS Space Operations CEO.

McDaniel added, “There is a lot of excitement not just within our industry but within the ATLAS team, specifically about the way that space can improve life on Earth. At ATLAS, our Federated Ground System Network, mission integration, and mission assurance capabilities are tools that we have built to contribute in a meaningful way to life on Earth.”

The NOAA missions will continue to employ ATLAS ground stations located in Finland, Ghana, and Tahiti. ATLAS will use a customized approach with its proprietary network management software. More specifically, Freedom will backhaul mission data from all sites to the cloud, process the data using customer-specific applications, and finally push data directly to NOAA servers. This service also validates how Freedom seamlessly manages passes at both ATLAS-owned sites as well as 3rd-party sites. Hence, demonstrating the ability of the Freedom Software and ATLAS’ global network to expand to support its clients’ growing business needs.