Lockheed Martin Contracts ITT Exelis to Build GPS 3 Payloads
By Jeffrey Hill | March 22, 2012
[Satellite TODAY 03-22-12] ITT Exelis was awarded a $32 million contract by Lockheed Martin to build the navigation payloads for the third and fourth Global Positioning System 3 (GPS 3) space vehicles, the company announced March 21.
Exelis previously announced in December that it had integrated and performed the initial power up of the full-size payload prototype, which is also known as the GPS 3 Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) Navigation Payload Element.
Exelis and Lockheed Martin were selected by the U.S. Air Force in 2008 to build the next-generation GPS 3 program. The U.S. Global Positioning Systems Directorate at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center leads the GPS 3 team.
The first GPS 3 satellites are scheduled for launch in 2014.
“Exelis payloads have been onboard every GPS spacecraft — a period spanning nearly 40 years,” ITT Exelis Geospatial Systems Vice President and General Manager Mark Pisani said in a statement. “Together with Lockheed Martin, Exelis is committed to providing our warfighters and commercial and civilian users more accurate and reliable capabilities that improve interoperability and jam-resistance.”