Northrop to Build GOES-R Cryocoolers

Northrop Grumman has been selected by ITT Corp. to provide flight cryocoolers for the sensor payloads on two international geostationary weather satellites, Northrop Grumman announced Feb. 3.
    The cryocoolers will be used to reduce thermal noise on the satellites’ space-based sensors. The ITT sensor payloads will be based on the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) that ITT is building for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R-series (GOES-R).
     The improved imager aims to provide the capability to monitor three times the number of atmospheric events when compared to current generation payloads.
Financial details of the contract were not disclosed.