NASA Names 12 Companies to Provide Venture Class Launch Services

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the selection of 12 companies to provide launch services for its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare missions will provide new opportunities for science and technology payloads and foster a growing commercial launch market. The fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts have a five-year ordering period with a maximum total value of $300 million across all contracts, NASA said Thursday.

The companies selected for the space agency’s VADR missions include ABL Space Systems, Astra Space, Blue Origin Florida, L2 Solutions, Northrop Grumman Systems, Phantom Space, Relativity Space, Rocket Lab USA, Spaceflight Incorporated, Space Exploration Technologies, United Launch Services and Virgin Orbit.

Bradley Smith, director of launch services at NASA Headquarters, said the VADR awardees represent a mixture of established and emerging launch providers and launch service aggregators and brokers. He added that the “tremendously flexible contracts” will meet a wide variety of NASA science and technology needs, further enhancing its reputation as “Earth’s bridge to space.”

It was explained that the acquisition also includes a special on-ramp provision to enable additional providers and incumbents to submit proposals introducing launch services for new capabilities not available or identified at the time of the initial contract award.

Firm-fixed-price task orders will be issued to provide the launch services under these contracts for NASA and NASA-sponsored missions. Launches under the VADR contract will align with commercial practices, using less NASA oversight to achieve lower launch costs.

The VADR acquisition builds on previous procurement efforts such as the Venture Class Launch Services and VCLS Demo 2 contracts, which are fostering the development of new, small launch vehicles for NASA payloads.