SAN DIEGO. General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced on August 4 that it has been selected for the United States Space Force Electro-Optical Infrared (EO/IR) Weather System (EWS) satellite program under the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC).

GA-EMS will design and manufacture a prototype spacecraft, integrate the EWS payload and provide on-orbit mission control services to support the collection of theater weather imagery and cloud characterization data for worldwide military operational use.

“In addition to our ongoing Orbital Test Bed programs like the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) for NASA and Argos 4 for the United States Air Force, GA-EMS is pleased to support critical space missions,” stated Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS.

“With EWS we will continue to leverage our expertise in developing scalable architectures and volume-efficient packaging, as well as our expanding satellite manufacturing capabilities to rapidly design and deliver an EO/IR satellite solution to meet the proposed EWS launch date in 2022.”

For EWS, GA-EMS is teaming with EOVista, LLC, Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc. (AER), and Braxton Technologies, LLC. EOVista provides the EO/IR payload, AER Inc performs weather product generation, and Braxton Technologies, LLC provides mission Enterprise Ground Station (EGS) command and control, and operations support.

“EWS will demonstrate new technologies and lead to optimized future capabilities for effective weather prediction,” stated Nick Bucci, vice president of Missile Defense and Space Systems at GA-EMS. “Combining GA-EMS’ proven expertise in satellite design and manufacturing will lead to production of a cost-effective future high performance weather satellite constellation”

The award is contracted through the Space Enterprise Consortium, an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contract vehicle managed by Advanced Technology Incorporated (ATI).