HOUSTON - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is seeking small-business contractors to provide mission engineering, specialized information technology, software development, and advanced research and development support for human spaceflight operations at the agency's Johnson Space Center.

NASA's Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) plans, directs, manages, and implements mission operations for NASA human-spaceflight programs. The directorate supports astronaut training and mission operations for programs including the International Space Station (ISS), Artemis, Orion, and future human-spaceflight missions.

The planned Operations, Research, and Broad Innovative Technologies Services, or ORBIT, contract would establish a multiple-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity vehicle with firm-fixed-price task orders. The draft statement of work identifies the vehicle as a total small-business set-aside and calls for mission concept development and formulation studies, systems and discipline engineering, spaceflight-enabling and mission-operations support, specialized IT and end-user services, software development and sustainment, and advanced mission research and development (R&D).

Missions and systems engineering 

The first functional area covers end-to-end mission and systems engineering across the mission life cycle for spacecraft, instruments, launch systems, and ground systems. Potential work includes designing, developing, testing, and evaluating new and existing hardware; addressing hardware obsolescence; sustaining existing systems; and implementing approved hardware and software changes. NASA also calls for performance and reliability modeling informed by historical mission data, along with configuration and data management support.

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A second functional area focuses on technical evaluation, analysis, and independent assessment. Contractors could perform conceptual design and development studies for systems, subsystems, information technology, software, and operational capabilities supporting flight operations.

The work could include strategic technology planning, mission concept studies, concepts of operations, system and enterprise architecture studies, technology assessments, analyses of alternatives, modeling and simulation, prototype and proof-of-concept evaluations, and systems engineering analysis. Contractors also could assess technical feasibility, interoperability, implementation approaches, lifecycle considerations, and emerging technologies to support NASA planning, modernization, and technology investment decisions.

The third functional area addresses specialized IT and mission-support services not provided by NASA's institutional IT organizations. The scope includes designing, developing, integrating, testing, deploying, hosting, operating, and sustaining organization-specific software applications and automated information systems.

Contractors also could be tasked with modernizing or migrating legacy systems, developing new applications, upgrading existing systems, and providing systems engineering, data management, infrastructure, infrastructure administration, and security-management services. Mission-support work could include end-user support for domestic, international, and on-orbit users, as well as help-desk and multimedia services supporting training and mission needs.

Advanced R&D

The fourth functional area focuses on advanced R&D, including exploratory prototype software and supporting hardware development and technology research for next-generation mission-operations solutions. Contractors would explore and introduce new technologies and could develop, integrate, test, deploy, host, support, and sustain advanced technologies and specialized custom software for mission operations and other systems.

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The scope also includes the testing, calibration, integration, installation, commissioning, and maintenance of NASA assets, including preventive and corrective maintenance intended to keep those assets operational.

NASA says ORBIT is intended to establish a follow-on contract vehicle for legacy and selected requirements covered by the Mission Enabling Support Contract, or MESC, IDIQ contracts, including a portion of MESC-B. Those contracts are scheduled to expire Sept. 30, 2027. NASA says the new acquisition strategy is intended to align functionally related capabilities, reduce contract-administration requirements, and improve small-business participation and competition at the task-order level.

NASA's existing Flight Operations support infrastructure includes mission planning, test, training, command and control, spacecraft communications, flight software, simulation, vehicle testing, and mission execution capabilities. The agency also identifies mission operations systems as including scalable and redundant data and power systems, standardized interfaces, data storage and retrieval, and integrated cyber and data security.

The ORBIT draft statement of work establishes functional, performance-based requirements, with specific tasks, deliverables, performance standards, acceptance criteria, and periods of performance to be defined in individual task orders. Task orders can cover a single functional area, a subset of a functional area, or multiple functional areas when the work is integrated.

NASA requests responses to the RFI by 5 October 2026 at 6 p.m. Eastern. The agency named Edwin Ortiz-Franco 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/48a0b93b561a44369a6ee01f3e47e2f9/view.