Weekly GEOINT Community News

Octo Awarded NGA Agile Web Presence Contract

According to an Octo Consulting Group press release, the company was awarded a $34 million agile development contract to support the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) IT Services Directorate. Over a five-year period, Octo will provide software engineering, infrastructure, and operations and sustainment support to NGA’s Agile Web Presence (AWP) program. The AWP program develops NGA’s internal and external web presences.

HP Acquires Aruba Networks

HP acquired  Aruba Networks for $3 billion, reports ZD Net. According to the article, Aruba will remain its own entity and over time all HP networking products, including wireless and WLAN, will be rebranded as Aruba. Combining Aruba’s existing wireless networking capabilities with HP’s will offer an end-to-end solution to customers.

PlanetiQ Signs Weather Launch Contract

PlanetiQ signed a contract with Indian Space Research Organization’s Antrix Corporation Limited to launch PlanetiQ’s first two weather satellites in Q4 2016. Ten more satellites are planned for launch in 2017 to complete an initial constellation of 12 satellites expected to dramatically improve global weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and space weather prediction.

Hera Systems to Sign Licensing Agreement with NASA

Hera Systems said it would soon announce the signing of a licensing agreement with NASA on two pending patents for a rapid-prototype, low-cost spacecraft called COTSAT. The agreement enables Hera Systems to leverage NASA’s technology in the development of an ultra-high resolution commercial imaging system Hera Systems aim to launch in 2017. This second generation, sub-meter resolution imaging satellite will be an addition to Hera Systems’ planned constellation of 48 first generation, one-meter satellites.

Airbus to Monitor Canadian Region

Airbus Defense and Space was selected for two of six major research projects in the emergency response and safety of operations domain for the Canadian Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center. The first, in collaboration with MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, is to examine man-made changes on land using multi-frequency SAR satellite data. For the second project, Airbus will work with C-CORE to investigate the synergistic use of X- and C-band SAR data for tactical ship route planning in Arctic waters.

DoD Awards Recognizes Accomplishments in IT, Cyber

The U.S. Department of Defense named the recipients of its 2015 Department of Defense Chief Information Officer Awards for Cyber and IT Excellence. Four individuals and six teams were honored, one of which was the Data Center Consolidation and Recapitalization Team at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). See the full list of winners.

Peer Intel

The Honorable Michael G. Vickers was appointed to BAE Systems’ board of directors for a three-year term as of Dec. 1. Vickers recently served as the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence from 2011 to April 2015.

Former NGA Director Letitia Long was named chairperson of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance’s (INSA) board of directors. Long served as the fifth director of NGA, and was the first woman to lead a major U.S. intelligence agency.

Boundless announced Andrew Dearing as its acting CEO. Dearing joined Boundless earlier this year and has many years of experience in the geospatial software, data, and services industry.

Aeroject Rocketdyne named Jerry Tarnacki vice president of quality and mission assurance. Tarnacki brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in the aerospace and defense industry.

Photo Credit: PlanetiQ