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NOAA plans to use a POES Extended Life Internet cloud-based system through Microsoft Azure to control those satellites, using a contract with Parsons Corp. awarded in September 2022. The new "ground system as a service" approach should keep the satellites running until at least September 2025, years beyond their expected lifetimes. With more years in orbit, the older satellites will compliment the newer members of the polar orbiting satellite family, at lower cost than direct operations by NOAA, the agency said.Kind of wild path. I hope they have significant value past 2025; surely setting up this transition took some significant resources. Would be weird to me to do this then turn them off two years later.
I wonder how much of the ground control stuff is custom versus comes out of the box. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/orbital/overview