Raytheon Awarded an $8 Million Contract to Provide Optics for an Advanced Astronomical Telescope.

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 6, 1999--

Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTNA)(NYSE:RTNB) has been awarded an $8.1 million contract to build the Active Optics System for an advanced astronomical telescope for the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) project.

SOAR is a partnership between the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, the University of North Carolina, Michigan State University and Brazil. This high-performance, 4.2-meter aperture telescope, which will be located on Cerro Pachon in northern Chile, will be the first high-resolution telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. Raytheon's contract calls for the fabrication of the 4.2-meter active primary mirror assembly, a 0.6-meter secondary mirror assembly, a 0.4 x 0.6-tertiary and image stabilization mirror assembly, a central processor and associated electronics and cabling.

The state-of-the-art optical technology incorporated in this system will produce images that rival telescopes twice its size, making SOAR one of the world's most powerful 4 meter class telescopes. Raytheon has extensive experience in the development and manufacture of advanced optical systems. The company has provided optical systems for three of NASA's Great Observatories and is currently involved in extensive study efforts for the Next Generation Space Telescope. It has also recently delivered an Adaptive Optics System to the Air Force and has fabricated large optics for other telescope systems and for government technology demonstration programs.

Raytheon Company, based in Lexington, Mass., is a global technology leader that provides products and services in the areas of commercial and defense electronics, engineering and construction, and business and special mission aircraft. Raytheon has operations throughout the United States and services more than 80 countries around the world.

Additional Technical Information:

The Active Optics System for the SOAR telescope compensates for temperature, viewing angle and other changes within the telescope structure to achieve superb image quality. The primary mirror has an outside diameter of 4.2 meters (14 feet) and a thickness of 0.1 meters (4 inches) and weighs approximately 7,000 pounds.

An array of individually controlled forces, applied to the back of the mirror, will provide a high level of wavefront correction. The secondary mirror is articulated to provide real-time optical alignment capability, and the tertiary mirror provides the function of a fast steering mirror for rapid correction of apparent star motion due to atmospheric turbulence. Optimum adjustments to the primary mirror actuators, secondary mirror alignment, and tertiary mirror pointing are determined and controlled by the active optics control system.

Note to editors: the work will be performed by Raytheon Systems Company's Sensors and Electronic Systems business segment operations in Danbury, Conn.

The National Optical Astronomy Observatories is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.