NASA seeks industry support for aerocapture demo mission in Earth orbit

Summary points: 

• NASA Seeks Aerocapture Concepts: NASA’s Langley Research Center is soliciting industry proposals to design a flight system for ARRIVAL, a demonstration mission aimed at validating aerocapture technology by using atmospheric drag to insert a spacecraft into Earth orbit.

• SmallSat and Aeroshell Design Required: The mission will use a 1-meter-diameter aeroshell housing a SmallSat, which must survive a high-speed atmospheric pass, deploy into a 500 km orbit, and transmit critical flight data — all within strict mass, volume, and timeline constraints.

• Focus on Feasibility and Affordability: Contractors must deliver a conceptual design, rough cost estimate, and development schedule while leveraging commercial technologies and existing product lines to evaluate mission feasibility and identify technical risks.

WASHINGTON - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA’s) Langley Research Center (LaRC) has issued a request for industry proposals to support the conceptual design of a new mission aimed at demonstrating aerocapture technology in Earth orbit. The proposed mission, known as ARRIVAL - short for Aerocapture to Reliably Reduce Inertial Velocity with Aerodynamics and Lift - could be a critical step toward enabling more efficient and lower-cost space exploration missions across the solar system.

Aerocapture is a technique that uses a planet’s atmosphere to slow down a spacecraft and insert it into orbit, significantly reducing the reliance on traditional propulsive maneuvers. By using aerodynamic drag instead of fuel-intensive burns, mission designers can reduce spacecraft mass and complexity while increasing the available payload capacity. NASA sees this capability as a key enabler for future Mars missions, science expeditions to the outer planets, and lunar return missions.

The ARRIVAL flight demonstration will validate several key technologies needed for successful aerocapture, including atmospheric flight dynamics, guidance, navigation, control, and mission operations. Flight data gathered during the demonstration will help refine models and simulation tools for future mission planning and spacecraft design.

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Under the solicitation, NASA is calling on contractors to develop a conceptual design for the ARRIVAL Flight System (AFS). The AFS will consist of a blunt-body aeroshell approximately one meter in diameter housing a SmallSat spacecraft. This integrated system will be deployed into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), where the launch vehicle’s upper stage will perform a perigee-lowering maneuver to direct the AFS on a trajectory that intersects Earth’s atmosphere. From there, the AFS will perform a single-pass, lift-controlled aerocapture maneuver.

Contractors are required to evaluate the technical feasibility of the ARRIVAL reference mission, including ensuring that the AFS can be accommodated on an ESPA Grande adapter, developing a SmallSat capable of completing mission objectives within tight mass and volume constraints, and ensuring reliable mechanical and electrical deployment events. They must also ensure the SmallSat can acquire, store, and downlink all required flight data within the limited mission timeline.

The conceptual design must include subsystem-level details for the SmallSat, such as propulsion system requirements, power and thermal architectures, communications strategies, attitude determination and control, and integration with NASA-furnished guidance software and instrumentation. Contractors must also propose a design for the integrated aeroshell structure, including mechanisms for attachment, separation, and disposal.

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Following atmospheric re-entry, the aeroshell will separate to deploy the SmallSat, which will then perform additional maneuvers to circularize its orbit at approximately 500 km. Once on orbit, it will transmit recorded flight data - including six-degree-of-freedom trajectory information, atmospheric entry measurements, and imagery captured by onboard and NASA-furnished sensors - to ground stations. The successful transmission of this data will mark the completion of the flight demonstration.

Proposals must also include a rough-order-of-magnitude (ROM) cost estimate and a proposed development and delivery schedule, identifying long-lead items and opportunities to leverage existing product lines to reduce development time.

Interested companies are encouraged to carefully review the detailed mission requirements and submit proposals outlining their conceptual approach, technical risk assessments, and estimated costs by 18 July 2025 at 4 p.m. EDT. The primary point of contact for this project is Shanna Patterson, who can be emailed at [email protected]. The secondary contact is Susan Hicks, who can be reached at [email protected]. For more information, including mission requirements, please visit https://sam.gov/opp/5c8768312bd8472884fb757b2c57fe9d/view.