Parsons Corp. won a $15.5 million 1-year base value contract with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for system integration and cloud management services for the Traffic Coordination System for Space.
NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce is developing TraCSS as a modern, cloud-based IT system that will provide space situational awareness and space traffic coordination services to private and civil space operators. These services are for global spaceflight safety and long-term sustainability of the space environment for commercial, civil, national security and international uses.
As the system integrator, Parsons will develop the software backbone for the operational TraCSS platform, including the SSA data repository and the application layer. The company will also integrate containerized, third-party software components from commercial companies into TraCSS.
Parsons will use agile development to build the basic infrastructure for the TraCSS system to allow continuous improvement and evolution to react to changing TraCSS mission needs. Parsons will also oversee management of cloud services, cybersecurity protection and system administration for TraCSS operations.
After the 1-year base period, the contract has one option to extend for another year for a maximum potential value of $26,883,047.
“We look forward to leveraging Parsons’ expertise across the national security sector and our operational experience in space domain awareness supporting flight safety of all active satellites on orbit to support the Office of Space Commerce as it takes over this crucial mission from the Department of Defense,” said Carey Smith, Parsons chair, president and CEO. “By strengthening the collaboration between industry, the government, and other TraCSS mission partners, we will establish a world-class system that safeguards vital space assets in a challenging, contested, and competitive environment.”
The award to Parsons represents OSC’s second major acquisition for the infrastructure components of the operational TraCSS system, the first being a task order awarded to AWS in August 2023 to establish the secure cloud computing infrastructure to host TraCSS.
“The Commerce Department continues to make major strides in the execution of our space situational awareness program,” said Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves. “This contract award demonstrates our commitment to leverage best-of-breed, commercial innovation to achieve our ambitious timelines and objectives for TraCSS.”
In October, OSC published a Request for Information for the third major TraCSS acquisition, which is the provision of a presentation layer that will provide the user interface to display and access SSA data and services. NOAA is conducting market research for this layer.
“NOAA has decades of experience fielding operational, public safety systems that issue hazard alerts to protect lives and property,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad. “We are applying that experience to the development of TraCSS.”