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By NASA
5 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
NASA has released a new proposal opportunity for industry to tap into agency know-how, resources, and expertise. The Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO), managed by the Space Technology Mission Directorate, enables valuable collaboration without financial exchanges between NASA and industry partners. Instead, companies leverage NASA subject matter experts, facilities, software, and hardware to accelerate their technologies and prepare them for future commercial and government use.
On Wednesday, NASA issued a standing ACO announcement for partnership proposals which will be available for five years and will serve as the umbrella opportunity for topic-specific appendix releases. NASA intends to issue appendices every six to 12 months to address evolving space technology needs. The 2025 ACO appendix is open for proposals until Sept. 24.
NASA will host an informational webinar about the opportunity and appendix at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Aug. 6. Interested proposers are encouraged to submit questions which will be answered during the webinar and will be available online after the webinar.
NASA teaming with industry isn’t new – decades of partnerships have resulted in ambitious missions that benefit all of humanity. But in recent years, NASA has also played a key role as a technology enabler, providing one-of-a-kind tools, resources, and infrastructure to help commercial aerospace companies achieve their goals.
Since 2015, NASA has collaborated with industry on approximately 80 ACO projects. Here are some ways the collaborations have advanced space technology:
Lunar lander systems
Blue Origin and NASA worked together on several ACOs to mature the company’s lunar lander design. NASA provided technical reports and assessments and conducted tests at multiple centers to help Blue Origin advance a stacked fuel cell system for a lander’s primary power source. Other Blue Origin ACO projects evaluated high-temperature engine materials and advanced a landing navigation and guidance system.
Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) lander is delivering NASA science and technology to the Moon through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. In 2023, NASA selected Blue Origin as a Human Landing System provider to develop its Blue Moon MK2 lander for future crewed lunar exploration.
Artist concept of Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) lander.Blue Origin Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) lander is delivering NASA science and technology to the Moon through the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. In 2023, NASA selected Blue Origin as a Human Landing System provider to develop its Blue Moon MK2 lander for future crewed lunar exploration.
Cryogenic fluid transfer
Throughout a year-long ACO, NASA and SpaceX engineers worked together to perform in-depth computational fluid analysis of proposed propellant transfer methods between two SpaceX Starship spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. The SpaceX-specific analysis utilized Starship flight data and data from previous NASA research and development to identify potential risks and help mitigate them during the early stages of commercial development. NASA also provided inputs as SpaceX developed an initial concept of operations for its orbital propellant transfer missions.
Artist’s concept of Starship propellant transfer in space.SpaceX SpaceX used the ACO analyses to inform the design of its Starship Human Landing System, which NASA selected in 2021 to put the first Artemis astronauts on the Moon.
Autonomous spacecraft navigation solution
Advanced Space and NASA partnered to advance the company’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System – software that allows lunar spacecraft to determine their location without relying exclusively on tracking from Earth.
Dylan Schmidt, CAPSTONE assembly integration and test lead, installs solar panels onto the CAPSTONE spacecraft at Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc., in Irvine, California.NASA/Dominic Hart The CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) spacecraft launched to the Moon in 2022 and continues to operate and collect critical data to refine the software. Under the ACO, Advanced Space was able to use NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to conduct crosslink experiments with CAPSTONE, helping mature the navigation solution for future missions. The mission’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System technology was initially supported through the NASA Small Business Innovation Research program.
Multi-purpose laser sensing system
Sensuron and NASA matured a miniature, rugged fiber optic sensing system capable of taking thermal and shape measurements for multiple applications. Throughout the ACO, Sensuron benefitted from NASA’s expertise in fiber optics and electrical, mechanical, and system testing engineering to design, fabricate, and “shake and bake” its prototype laser.
NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center’s FOSS, Fiber Optic Sensing System, recently supported tests of a system designed to turn oxygen into liquid oxygen, a component of rocket fuel. Patrick Chan, electronics engineer, and NASA Armstrong’s FOSS portfolio project manager, shows fiber like that used in the testing.NASA/Genaro Vavuris Space missions could use the technology to monitor cryogenic propellant levels and determine a fuel tank’s structural integrity throughout an extended mission. The laser technology also has medical applications on Earth, which ultimately resulted in the Sensuron spinoff company, The Shape Sensing Company.
Flexible lunar tires
In 2023, Venturi Astrolab began work with NASA under an ACO to test its flexible lunar tire design. The company tapped into testing capabilities unique to NASA, including heat transfer to cold lunar soil, traction, and life testing. The data validated the performance of tire prototypes, helping ready the design to support future NASA missions.
In 2024, NASA selected three companies, including Venturi Astrolab, to advance capabilities for a lunar terrain vehicle that astronauts could use to travel around the lunar surface, conducting scientific research on the Moon and preparing for human missions to Mars.
Venturi Lab designed and developed a durable, robust, and hyper-deformable lunar wheel.Venturi Lab The Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO) is one of many ways NASA enables commercial industry to develop, build, own, and eventually operate space systems. To learn more about these technology projects and more, visit: https://techport.nasa.gov/.
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Last Updated Jul 30, 2025 EditorLoura Hall Related Terms
Space Technology Mission Directorate Communicating and Navigating with Missions Small Spacecraft Technology Program Space Communications Technology Technology Technology Transfer & Spinoffs View the full article
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By European Space Agency
Image: On Friday 18 July, His Excellency Christian Stocker, Federal Chancellor of Austria, visited ESA Headquarters in Paris receiving a tour of the site from Director General Josef Aschbacher.
It was the Chancellor’s first visit to an ESA establishment following his swearing in earlier this year. Visiting the Astrolabe interpretive centre, Mr Stocker saw how Austria’s participation in ESA contributes to the goals of sustainable development and scientific excellence, and also heard how commercial space has undergone rapid development in Austria. He was accompanied by the Austrian ambassador to France, Barbara Kaudel-Jensen.
Austria became ESA’s 12th Member State when it ratified the ESA Convention in December 1986 and while always strongly committed to Earth observation and space applications, Austria has recently diversified its space interests, becoming more involved in launchers, navigation and human and robotic exploration. Austrian Carmen Possnig was selected as a member of ESA’s astronaut reserve in 2022 and will commence her second phase of training in the autumn. Carmen joined the visit and enthusiastically answered questions from the assembled Austrian media.
As part of Austria's innovation community, the ESA PhiLab opened last year and has a current call for proposals open until 8 October. Just last month, Austria hosted the Living Planet Symposium, which brought together 6500 members of the Earth observation community to present scientific results and plan future activities. It was supported by a citywide 'Space in the City' festival in Vienna, organised by the Federal Ministry for Innovation, Mobility and Infrastructure (BMIMI) and Urban Innovation Vienna GmbH (UIV) and demonstrating the everyday connections between citizens and space.
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By European Space Agency
Video: 00:01:51 Space weather ‘reporter’ Vigil will be the world’s first space weather mission to be permanently positioned at Lagrange point 5, a unique vantage point that allows us to see solar activity days before it reaches Earth. ESA’s Vigil mission will be a dedicated operational space weather mission, sending data 24/7 from deep space.
Vigil’s tools as a space weather reporter at its unique location in deep space will drastically improve forecasting abilities. From there, Vigil can see ‘around the corner’ of the Sun and observe activity on the surface of the Sun days before it rotates into view from Earth. It can also watch the Sun-Earth line side-on, giving an earlier and clearer picture of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) heading toward Earth.
Radiation, plasma and particles flung towards Earth by the Sun can pose a very real risk to critical infrastructure our society relies on. This includes satellites for navigation, communications and banking services as well as power grids and radio communication on the ground.
A report by Lloyd’s of London estimates that a severe space weather event, caused by such an outburst of solar activity, could cost the global economy 2.4 trillion dollars over five years.
ESA’s response to this growing threat is Vigil, a cornerstone mission of the Agency’s Space Safety Programme, planned for launch in 2031. Vigil’s data will give us drastically improved early warnings and forecasts, which in turn help protect satellites, astronauts and critical infrastructure on the ground that we all depend on.
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By NASA
Credit: NASA NASA has selected seven companies to assist the agency with architectural and engineering services at multiple agency centers and facilities.
The Western Regional Architect-Engineer Services is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract has a total estimated value not to exceed $75 million. The contract was awarded on July 14 with a five-year period of performance with the possibility of a six-month extension.
The selected contractors are:
DYNOTEC-KZF JV LLC of Columbus, Ohio Merrick-IMEG JV LLP of Greenwood Village, Colorado G Squared Design of Lakewood, Colorado Kal Architects Inc. of Irvine, California AECOM Technical Services Inc. of Los Angeles Stell SIA Sala O’Brien LLC DBA S3, LLC (S3) of Mountlake Terrace, Washington Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Arlington, Virginia Under the contract, the awarded companies will support general construction, alteration, modification, maintenance and repair, new construction of buildings, facilities, and real property for NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Support also includes optional back-up capacity in support of other NASA centers and federal tenants at agency facilities, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Fort Irwin, California, and the NASA launch alliance at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
For information about NASA and other agency programs, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov
-end-
Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jul 15, 2025 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
Ames Research Center Armstrong Flight Research Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory View the full article
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