NASA has selected Astrotech Space Operations, LLC of Titusville, Florida, and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide commercial payload processing services for agency missions launching from multiple locations.
Under the Spacecraft Processing Operations Contract, NASA will issue a fixed-price, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract that has a potential 10-year ordering period. The maximum total contract value is $100 million across all contracts supporting operations from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, as well as Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The contract also includes a special on-ramp provision to enable additional providers and incumbents to submit proposals introducing new commercial processing facilities and support services not available at the time of the initial award. The ordering period runs from approximately February 2023 to February 2033.
NASA will issue task orders for the facilities and services necessary to perform prelaunch processing of spacecraft and associated rocket flight hardware of the completed payload stack before being delivery to the launch pad.
NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy will manage the contract. The program is responsible for launching uncrewed rockets delivering spacecraft that observe the Earth, visit other planets, and explore the universe from weather satellites to telescopes to Mars rovers and more.
