NASA to aid new space technology development with US $200 million

Edinburgh, 21 February 2022. – NASA announced two opportunities to partner with the agency and help companies finalise the development of their technologies that could potentially be used for space exploration.

NASA’s ongoing program, Tipping Point, supports space technologies that can advance commercial space capabilities and benefit future agency missions. The agency is also allowing firms to work with their experts or use NASA’s facilities through the Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity.

The focus of these programs are technology development for space infrastructure and lunar- and near-Earth space capabilities. These include power distribution on the Moon, solutions for using lunar resources, climate research tools, and in-space manufacturing among others.

NASA will award a total of US $200 million under the Tipping Point program to businesses using funded Space Act Agreements. The opportunity also has incentives for small businesses to contribute less towards development costs.

NASA has awarded over US $0.5 billion to 50 different projects since the first Tipping Point opportunity in 2015. Space technologies that emerged due to this funding are part of current and future Agency mission plans. The Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity comes without a monetary award.