Jamie Bennet
NASA awarded contracts to 12 companies under the Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity to help advance its Moon to Mars mission objectives.
The space agency said Wednesday it chose 16 proposals focused on space component and equipment development, design, manufacturing and testing.
As part of the unfunded Space Act agreements, NASA will share its facilities and expertise to the awardees to support the execution of their projects. The chosen companies are:
- Aerojet Rocketdyne
- Blue Origin
- Boeing
- Canopy Aerospace
- Lockheed Martin
- Maxar Technologies
- Phase Four
- Psionic
- Roccor
- Sierra Space
- Stratolaunch
- Venturi Astrolab
Lockheed Martin was selected to lead three proposals, which focus on the use of friction stir welding, in-space thermoplastic composite manufacturing, and oscillating heat pipe technology.
Aerojet Rocketdyne and Blue Origin each received approval for two proposals, with both companies submitting studies on additive manufacturing techniques.
ACO projects are assigned a performance period of between 12 and 24 months on average. Work performance for the 16 projects will be decided individually.
