KBR has been awarded a five-year, $128 million contract by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) to provide key weather data services through the National Mesonet Program, the company announced on Tuesday. This firm-fixed-price contract is a recompete of a contract the company previously won in 2017.
“KBR’s work will help the NWS more accurately forecast future weather events and equip decision makers with the right information to protect the planet and the people on it,” said Byron Bright, President, KBR Government Solutions U.S. and 2020 Wash100 Award recipient.
Under this contract, KBR and its public and private partners will supply local weather data from more than 50,000 surface-based, mobile and aircraft-based weather observation platforms in the U.S. and globally to the National Mesonet Program. The program is a central clearinghouse for non-federal weather data.
“The program is a model public-private partnership and we look forward to continuing this important program with KBR and all the partner networks,” he said.
KBR will partner with Synoptic Data PBC, Earth Networks, WeatherFlow and the University of Oklahoma, KBR will carry out this work over the next five years. The data that KBR will collect and analyze will play a critical role in the nation’s numerical weather forecasting and local monitoring infrastructure and will improve weather prediction, severe weather watches and warnings and emergency response for all regions of the country.
“The National Mesonet Program, now having grown to include four dozen networks since 2009, provides a valuable source of observations for improving National Weather Service warning and forecast operations,” said Dr. Curtis Marshall, the National Weather Service’s National Mesonet Program Manager.
For more than 30 years, KBR has worked with government agencies, including NOAA, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA, to cement their Earth science and data visualization operations.
In Feb. 2020, KBR was awarded a potential eight-year, $400 million contract by NASA to support research and development of intelligent systems at the agency’s Ames Research Center in California.
The company will provide the center with resources and technical services for the facility’s intelligent systems division to perform scientific research and develop technologies and applications. According to KBR, it will also help NASA integrate modern information platforms into agency missions and other federal government-backed projects.
“This contract award reflects the company’s stellar performance over the last decade. Through it, we will continue to assist Ames in propelling space exploration,” said Stuart Bradie, KBR president and CEO.
KBR recently partnered with NASA Johnson Space Center to provide human spaceflight operation services to commercial companies, becoming the first company to provide such support with the use of the agency’s facilities and platforms.
In addition, NASA asked the company to train private astronauts in various spaceflight tasks such as operation of onboard International Space Station systems, ISS crew integration, routine operational task performance, health maintenance and emergency response.
The company will also provide medical operations and services before, during and after spaceflights, as well as mission planning, training and execution. KBR will train astronauts for private space travel to the ISS.
KBR currently trains and provides medical support to NASA and ISS international partner astronauts and supports all planning and execution aspects of mission operations. The company will additionally provide specialized services to support the agency’s astronauts.
“This historic agreement is a testament to KBR’s long-standing partnership with NASA. We will continue to work together to propel NASA’s mission to fuel a low-Earth orbit economy and advance the future of commercial space,” Bradie said.
About KBR, Inc.
KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program lifecycle within the Government Solutions and Energy sectors. KBR employs approximately 38,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 80 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses: Government Solutions, Energy Solutions and Technology Solutions.