Technology Advancement Utilizing Suborbital Flight Opportunities “Tech Flights” | 80HQTR20NOA01 20FO F1

Opportunity Information: Apply for 80HQTR20NOA01 20FO F1

NASA Headquarters, through its Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), planned to release a grant and cooperative agreement opportunity called "Technology Advancement Utilizing Suborbital Flight Opportunities (Tech Flights)" as an appendix under the broader SpaceTech-REDDI-2020 NASA Research Announcement. The core purpose of Tech Flights is to move space technologies out of the lab and into realistic, space-like test conditions quickly by using suborbital flight services offered by commercial providers. In practical terms, NASA is looking to fund payloads and experiments that are already past basic ground development and are ready to be flown to gather performance data, prove capability in relevant environments (such as microgravity or high-altitude conditions), reduce risk, and accelerate the path toward infusion into NASA missions or commercial products. A major theme running through the opportunity is that NASA is not only buying down technical risk for its own future missions, but also deliberately strengthening the U.S. commercial suborbital spaceflight ecosystem by creating steady demand for flight demonstrations.

The solicitation anticipated two broad topic areas. The first focuses on supporting sustainable lunar exploration and expanding economic activity into cislunar space, which signals an interest in technologies that could eventually support long-duration operations on or around the Moon, improve lunar mission capabilities, or enable a broader marketplace of services and infrastructure beyond low Earth orbit. The second topic emphasizes fostering commercialization of low Earth orbit and making productive use of suborbital space, pointing to technologies that help build routine, commercially viable activity in LEO and that leverage suborbital platforms as stepping stones for qualification, validation, or early operational demonstrations.

Eligibility is oriented toward non-NASA organizations with external principal investigators. U.S. private entities (both for-profit and non-profit), U.S. universities, and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers are eligible, with the explicit exception of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A U.S. proposing organization is allowed to include a participating foreign entity, but the U.S. recipient is not permitted to transfer awarded funds to that foreign partner, which is an important constraint for teams considering international collaboration. While NASA employees and contractors cannot serve as the lead PI under this appendix, they may participate as co-investigators or collaborators, allowing proposal teams to incorporate NASA expertise without making NASA the proposing organization.

Awards under Tech Flights were planned to be made as grants and/or cooperative agreements, with cost share requirements referenced in the appendix itself. The work NASA intended to fund is specifically flight-ready in the sense that the technology must have already successfully completed its ground-based development phase and be prepared for a demonstration or test campaign that yields meaningful design or performance data in a relevant space-like environment. That makes this opportunity more focused on maturation, validation, and de-risking than on early-stage concept development.

From a funding and planning standpoint, STMD provided the financial and programmatic support, with award start dates planned for October 2020. NASA indicated it expected to make roughly 10 to 20 awards, depending on proposal quality and available funding, and also stated it reserved the right to make no awards if proposals did not meet the bar. The public listing associated the opportunity with CFDA 43.012 and identified the funding instrument types as grants and cooperative agreements, while not specifying a hard award ceiling in the summary fields.

Submission was to be handled entirely through NSPIRES, and proposals had to be submitted electronically by an Authorized Organizational Representative. A key procedural requirement was a Mandatory Abstract due March 20, 2020 at 5:00 pm Eastern, and submitting that abstract was a prerequisite for being allowed to submit a full proposal. Full proposals were due on or before April 24, 2020. NASA encouraged applicants to register in NSPIRES early, learn the system, and avoid last-minute submission problems, which is typical for NSPIRES-based solicitations where account setup, roles, and organizational approvals can take time.

For questions, NASA directed technical and programmatic inquiries to the Flight Opportunities Program Executive, Christopher Baker, via HQ-STMD-FO@nasaprs.com. Responses were to be provided by email and could also be rolled into an FAQ hosted on the NSPIRES page for the solicitation, with NASA noting it would preserve the anonymity of those submitting questions. The opportunity was identified with the funding opportunity number 80HQTR20NOA01 20FO F1 and listed as a discretionary research and development program administered by NASA Headquarters.

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA Headquarters in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Technology Advancement Utilizing Suborbital Flight Opportunities “Tech Flights”" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 43.012.
• This funding opportunity was created on Feb 27, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Mar 20, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 20 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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