Article Posted on : - Apr 07, 2010

The largest scientific data system in the world -- the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) -- collects environmental measurements from more than 30 satellites, such as NASA's Terra, Aqua, Aura and ICESat. A NASA Photo.

WASHINGTON (BNS): NASA Goddard has awarded the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) evolution and development contract to Raytheon Company.

Raytheon, as per the contract, will maintain and manage large volumes of sensing data and imagery from space instruments.

It will give climate researchers access to valuable data about the earth's atmospheres, oceans, lands and their interactions.

The contract will have a $250 million ceiling for the five-year base period of performance and an initial value of $75 million.

"This contract enables Raytheon to continue to build upon our strong legacy of providing program excellence, innovation and reliable engineering solutions to NASA's earth observing systems," said TW Scott, vice president of Raytheon's Mission Operations and Solutions, according to a news release by the Raytheon.

NASA has developed EOSDIS to manage and provide access to data collected by a suite of earth observation satellites.

The core component of the EOSDIS called the EOSDIS core system was developed by the Raytheon.

The EOSDIS enables the collection of Earth science data from the EOS spacecraft. As NASA's Earth science data system, EOSDIS provides command and control, scheduling, data processing, and data archiving and distribution services for EOS missions.