SUITLAND, Md., Sept. 7, 2006 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) command, control and communications segment acceptance testing has been completed two months early, thanks to the efforts of Raytheon Company, Northrop Grumman Corporation and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System IPO (Integrated Program Office) testing team.

This achievement clears the way for the NPP, a mission jointly managed by the NPOESS IPO and NASA, to fly early versions of key sensors and test the ground segments to reduce risks for the operational NPOESS.

NPOESS is a satellite system that will be used to monitor global environmental conditions and collect and disseminate data related to weather, atmosphere, oceans, land and near-space environment. NPOESS will converge existing polar-orbiting satellite systems under a single national program.

NPOESS data are vital for future weather analysis and forecasting to support military operations, civil applications and scientific research. The testing was conducted at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite operations facility in Suitland, Md. The segment acceptance testing ran for 23 days in August.

"The program baseline schedule had C3S SAT completing on October 27, 2006; however, the Raytheon-developed system performed extremely well and testing detected only a handful of minor discrepancies," said U.S. Air Force Col. Dan Stockton, NPOESS system program director.

"Almost four years of design and development led to this crucial and very successful testing," said Mike Mader, vice president and NPOESS program lead for Raytheon. "A very stable software baseline coupled with an experienced and resourceful Raytheon-IPO testing team allowed us to complete the SAT almost two months early."

Raytheon is part of the Northrop Grumman Space Technology NPOESS team. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor and has overall responsibility for the program development effort.

Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS), with 2005 sales of $2.5 billion, is a leading provider of information and intelligence solutions to the government. IIS provides the right knowledge at the right time to make timely and accurate decisions of national significance.

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN - News), with 2005 sales of $21.9 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.

Note to Editors: Technical Information

The NPP C3S segment acceptance testing verified the integrated operation of 36 racks of hardware distributed at five locations (Svalbard, Norway; Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.; White Sands, N.M.; Aurora, Colo; and Suitland, Md.) controlled by nine software subsystems comprising almost 2 million software lines of code. The SAT and post-SAT analysis verified approximately

600 NPOESS-C3S requirements. Approximately 40 Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, NPOESS IPO, and NASA personnel participated.

    Contact:
    Keith Little
    703.849.1675