NASA Flight Opportunities Seeks Additional Flight Providers
NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center has released a solicitation for additional providers to its Flight and Payload Integration Services contract for Flight Opportunities. This contract allows companies to fly research and development technology payloads on suborbital vehicles that provide exposure to space and space-relevant environments. Demand for suborbital testing has increased as researchers develop technologies that will enable NASA’s future missions to both the Moon and Mars. As such, NASA is issuing this solicitation to increase the available flight vehicle options for testing.
The contract requirements specify five flight profiles, for which three are currently being solicited:
- Reduced gravity with space environment
- Space environment with free-fall descent
- Controlled descent with controlled vertical landing
Respondents must primarily be a United States entity. Typical platforms will include (but are not limited to) spacecraft, sounding rockets, and entry, descent, and landing testbeds that have a demonstrated capability of meeting one or more of the above flight profiles.
Proposals are due no later than 12 p.m. PDT on June 15, 2020.
Interested respondents are invited to view the full solicitation online. Questions related to this request for proposals (RFP) should be submitted to the contracting officer referenced in the solicitation.
