NASA Awards Global Modeling, Assimilation Support Contract

NASA has selected ADNET Systems, Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland, to provide global modeling and data assimilation support at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The Global Modeling and Assimilation Support contract is a single-award, cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum ordering value of approximately $84 million with a five-year period of performance beginning March 15, 2026.

Under this contract, the contractor will be responsible for supporting and maintaining NASA Goddard’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office’s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model and data assimilation system. Tasks include supporting the development and validation of individual model components within GEOS and the development and integration of external components like sea and land-ice models within the modeling and assimilation system.

For information about NASA and other agency programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

-end-

Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov

Rob Garner
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-5687
rob.garner@nasa.gov

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Tiernan P. Doyle

NASA Selects Participants to Track Artemis II Mission

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NASA Selects Participants to Track Artemis II Mission

NASA has selected 34 global volunteers to track the Orion spacecraft during the crewed Artemis II mission’s journey around the Moon.

The Artemis II test flight will launch NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, carrying the Orion spacecraft and a crew of four astronauts, on a mission into deep space. The agency’s second mission in the Artemis campaign is a key step in NASA’s path toward establishing a long-term presence at the Moon and confirming the systems needed to support future lunar surface exploration and paving the way for the first crewed mission to Mars.

While NASA’s Near Space Network and Deep Space Network, coordinated by the agency’s SCaN (Space Communication and Navigation) program , will provide primary communications and tracking services to support Orion’s launch, journey around the Moon, and return to Earth, participants selected from a request for proposals published in August 2025, comprised of established commercial service providers, members of academia, and individual amateur radio enthusiasts will use their respective equipment to passively track radio waves transmitted by Orion during its approximately 10-day journey.

“The Artemis II tracking opportunity is a real step toward SCaN’s commercial-first vision. By inviting external organizations to demonstrate their capabilities during a human spaceflight mission, we’re strengthening the marketplace we’ll rely on as we explore farther into the solar system,” said Kevin Coggins, deputy associate administrator for SCaN at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This isn’t about tracking one mission, but about building a resilient, public-private ecosystem that will support the Golden Age of innovation and exploration.”

This isn’t about tracking one mission, but about building a resilient, public-private ecosystem that will support the Golden Age of innovation and exploration.”

KEvin Coggins

NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for SCaN

These volunteers will submit their data to NASA for analysis, helping the agency better assess the broader aerospace community’s tracking capabilities and identify ways to augment future Moon and Mars mission support. There are no funds exchanged as a part of this collaborative effort.

This initiative builds on a previous effort in which 10 volunteers successfully tracked the Orion spacecraft during Artemis I in 2022. That campaign produced valuable data and lessons learned, including implementation, formatting, and data quality variations for Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems, which develops communications and data standards for spaceflight. To address these findings, SCaN now requires that all tracking data submitted for Artemis II comply with its data system standards.

Compared to the previous opportunity, public interest in tracking the Artemis II mission has increased. About 47 ground assets spanning 14 different countries will be used for to track the spacecraft during its journey around the Moon.   

Participants List:

Government:

• Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Canada
• The German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany

Commercial:

• Goonhilly Earth Station Ltd, United Kingdom
• GovSmart, Charlottesville, Virginia
• Integrasys + University of Seville, Spain
• Intuitive Machines, Houston
• Kongsberg Satellite Services, Norway
• Raven Defense Corporation, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Reca Space Agency + University of Douala, Cameroon
• Rincon Research Corporation & the University of Arizona, Tucson
• Sky Perfect JSAT, Japan
• Space Operations New Zealand Limited, New Zealand
• Telespazio, Italy
• ViaSat, Carlsbad, California
• Von Storch Engineering, Netherlands

Individual:

• Chris Swier, South Dakota
• Dan Slater, California
• Loretta A Smalls, California
• Scott Tilley, Canada

Academia:

• American University, Washington
• Awara Space Center + Fukui University of Technology, Japan
• Morehead State University, Morehead, Kentucky
• Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, Rosman, North Carolina
• University of California Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory, California
• University of New Brunswick, ECE, Canada
• University of Pittsburgh, ECE, Pittsburgh
• University of Zurich – Physics Department, Switzerland

Non-Profit & Amateur Radio Organizations:

• AMSAT Argentina, Argentina
• AMSAT Deutschland, Germany
• Amateur Radio Exploration Ground Station Consortium, Springfield, Illinois
• CAMRAS, Netherlands
• Deep Space Exploration Society, Kiowa County, Colorado
• Neu Golm Ground Station, Germany
• Observation Radio Pleumur-bodou, France

Artemis II will fly around the Moon to test the systems which will carry astronauts to the lunar surface for economic benefits and scientific discovery in the Golden Age of exploration and innovation.

The networks supporting Artemis receive programmatic oversight from NASA’s SCaN Program office. In addition to providing communications services to missions, SCaN develops the technologies and capabilities that will help propel NASA to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The Deep Space Network is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and the Near Space Network is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. 

Learn more about NASA’s SCaN Program:  

https://www.nasa.gov/scan

About the Author

Katrina Lee

Katrina Lee is a writer for the Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program office and covers emerging technologies, commercialization efforts, exploration activities, and more.

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Katrina Lee

I Am Artemis: Dustin Gohmert

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I Am Artemis: Dustin Gohmert

Listen to this audio excerpt from Dustin Gohmert, Orion Crew Survival System (OCSS) manager:

During NASA’s Artemis II mission around the Moon, the astronauts inside the Orion spacecraft will be wearing specialized pressure suits designed to protect them throughout their journey. At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Dustin Gohmert leads the team responsible for these suits, known as the Orion Crew Survival System (OCSS).

“We work with the crew to say, ‘Here’s this design concept we have. How does this really work in the spaceflight environment?’” Gohmert said. “As we evolve the design, we take the crew’s input and we adapt the suit over time to take into account not only the desire we have for safety, but the real-world impacts that it has.”

The suits will protect astronauts on launch day, throughout high-risk parts of missions near the Moon, during the high-speed return to Earth, and in emergency situations if such events arise. The OCSS suits are engineered to sustain life for up to six days in the event of an emergency, and can provide the astronauts oxygen, hydration, food, and waste management needed on their way back to Earth.

“In an emergency, you’re essentially living in a personal spacecraft that’s only an inch bigger than your body,” Gohmert said. “That’s the reality of survival in space.”

Gohmert’s team in the Orion Crew Survival Systems Lab manages every phase of the suits, including processing, designing, qualifying, and testing them for the mission, as well as integrating them with the Orion spacecraft. Their work addresses engineering challenges, such as how much internal pressure the suit can safely maintain and for how long.

The team custom-builds each suit to fit the anatomy of the astronauts. Crew members undergo detailed sizing and multiple fit checks to ensure precision, and their feedback is a key part of the design evolution and refinement of the suit.

After earning his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio and his master’s in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, Gohmert joined United Space Alliance before becoming a NASA civil servant. He worked through the end of the Space Shuttle Program and later transitioned to Orion. Working on the suit throughout his career has been both technically challenging and a deeply personal responsibility.

The weight of it is incredible; knowing the ultimate responsibility you and the team share in the safety of the crew and the mission. Every thought we have, every piece of paper we write — crew is the number one priority.

dustin Gohmert

Orion Crew Survival Systems (OCSS) Manager

As NASA prepares to explore deep space with Artemis II, Gohmert’s role will play a part in safely sending crew members around the Moon and returning them home.

“I was born after the last Moon landing,” he said. “To actually be a part of the next round is kind of overwhelming. It’s awe-inspiring in every possible way.”

About the Author

Erika Peters

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Red, Green Light Show

A green and red aurora streams across Earth’s horizon above the city lights of Europe in this Jan. 19, 2026, photograph, which looks north across Italy toward Germany. The International Space Station was orbiting 262 miles above the Mediterranean Sea at approximately 10:02 p.m. local time when the image was captured.

Also known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), auroras are colorful, dynamic, and often visually delicate displays of an intricate dance of particles and magnetism between the Sun and Earth called space weather. When energetic particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, they can cause the colorful glow that we call auroras.

Image credit: NASA/Chris Williams

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Monika Luabeya