IPO News Archive

04/11/2003 — GSA Administrator Stephen Perry co-hosted groundbreaking ceremonies for the new $61 million NOAA Satellite Operations Center in Suitland, Maryland. Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.) spoke at the ceremony. Guests included Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr and Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele. Commerce Department Deputy Secretary Samuel Bodman said, "We are at the threshold of a new beginning in environmental satellite operations." Expected to open in 2005, the $61 million facility will be the nerve center of NOAA's next-generation satellite series. Once completed, the building will hold high-technology valued at $50 million, including 16 antennae that will control over $3 billion in environmental satellites.