CLEVELAND - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Glenn Research Center is seeking commercial partners to help develop a global communications and navigation infrastructure for lunar and cislunar missions under the agency’s Lunar Exploration Ground Sites, or LEGS, public-private partnership initiative.
The sources sought notice seeks industry input on commercially viable approaches for providing high-availability direct-to-Earth communications and navigation services for spacecraft operating from geostationary orbit to approximately 2 million kilometers into cislunar space.
The effort falls under NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program, which is expanding communications and navigation capabilities to support future Artemis lunar exploration missions, long-duration lunar operations, and broader Moon-to-Mars objectives.
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Near Space Network and LEGS
NASA officials say the LEGS architecture is intended to augment the agency’s existing Near Space Network with globally distributed lunar communications ground stations that can support continuous operations for lunar spacecraft and other deep-space missions.
Under the preliminary deployment plan, NASA wants at least three lunar direct-to-Earth ground stations operational by July 2027. The agency’s second phase calls for six globally distributed stations by July 2028, followed by an expanded nine-station architecture by July 2029 to improve network resiliency and operational capacity.
The proposed system would support X-band and Ka-band uplink and downlink communications, continuous coverage across cislunar space, scalable network operations for multiple simultaneous users, and long-term operational sustainment.
Commercial partners needed
NASA is considering a public-private partnership structure under which commercial providers would deliver operational communications services using a mix of government-furnished and commercially developed infrastructure.
Related: NASA outlines commercial procurement strategy for geostationary ocean imaging mission
As part of the initiative, NASA anticipates providing one LEGS antenna subsystem installed at the agency’s White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, N.M., along with support for site acceptance testing and manufacture of a second antenna subsystem. Contractors would be responsible for integrating NASA-provided assets into the operational architecture, installing additional infrastructure, operating and maintaining the network, and deploying additional ground stations needed to meet mission objectives.
NASA said the future arrangement could involve a firm-fixed-price contract structure with a performance period of at least five years. The agency also indicated that commercial operators may be allowed to use excess network capacity for non-NASA customers in the emerging commercial cislunar communications market.
The agency is requesting capability statements from companies with experience in space communications, ground systems, and space infrastructure development. NASA is also evaluating potential small business participation and possible socioeconomic set-aside strategies.
Responses are due to NASA Glenn Research Center by 9 June 2026 at 5 P.M. EDT. The agency named Ian Park as the primary point of contact for this project. They can be reached via email at [email protected]. More information is available at https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/34311aa9137d46059bbcd6be64ce9abe/view.
