RFI for Space Weather Instruments Released by NOAA

An RFI for space weather instruments has been released by NOAA seeking industry interest and capabilities to produce space-based coronagraphs which would be deployed on satellites in near-Earth and deep space orbits on the Sun-Earth line, and off-Sun-Earth line.

Responses to the Solar Coronagraph Development and Related Capabilities request for information (RFI) will be used to form an acquisition strategy for coronagraphs to sustain and extend NOAA’s observational capability and to facilitate advances in space weather prediction and forecasting.

Currently, NOAA’s compact coronagraph (CCOR) instruments are being developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). NOAA acknowledges there is industry interest to collaborate in the development of CCOR technology being developed by NRL, and to independently develop coronagraph technology. Any industry partner who wishes to collaborate in the development of the CCOR technology with NRL is required to be certified in the Department of Defense’s Joint Certification Program (JCP) in order to access unclassified military technical data belonging to the Department of Defense.

The RFI, which supports NOAA’s continuing efforts to partner with the commercial sector in innovative ways in support of its operational space-based space weather mission, will be open for 45 days with responses due no later than October 28, 2021, 2:00 PM ET.

NOAA seeks to leverage commercial space capabilities to capitalize on available extramural expertise, to improve weather forecasting, to diversify NOAA’s portfolio of data collection capabilities, to promote U.S. space commerce and the industrial base, and to pursue enhancements in mission areas, program schedules, and costs.

Rapid change in the commercial space services arena over the past several years is now yielding new technical and business approaches not only to building, launching, and operating satellites but also to selling private satellite capabilities as services. NOAA is interested in exploring these new business models to understand how they might complement the current public and international data supply arrangements.

(Source: Office of Space Commerce news release. Image from file.)