ARMD Solicitations (ULI Proposals Invited)

This ARMD solicitations page compiles the opportunities to collaborate with NASA’s aeronautical innovators and/or contribute to their research to enable new and improved air transportation systems. A summary of available opportunities with key dates requiring action are listed first. More information about each opportunity is detailed lower on this page.

University Leadership Initiative
Step-A proposals due by June 26, 2025.

University Student Research Challenge
Proposals for Cycle 3 are due by June 26, 2025.

Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations is using this request for information to identify technologies that address current challenges facing the wildland firefighting community. NASA is seeking information on data collection, airborne connectivity and communications solutions, unmanned aircraft systems traffic management, aircraft operations and autonomy, and more. This will support development of a partnership strategy for future collaborative demonstrations.

Interested parties were requested to respond to this notice with an information package no later than 4 pm ET, October 15, 2023, that shall be submitted via https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/acero-rfi. Any proprietary information must be clearly marked. Submissions will be accepted only from United States companies.

View the full RFI Announcement here.

Advanced Air Mobility Mission

GENERAL ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY
ANNOUNCEMENT OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
This request for information (RFI) is being used to gather market research for NASA to make informed decisions regarding potential partnership strategies and future research to enable Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). NASA is seeking information from public, private, and academic organizations to determine technical needs and community interests that may lead to future solicitations regarding AAM research and development.

This particular RFI is just one avenue of multiple planned opportunities for formal feedback on or participation in NASA’s AAM Mission-related efforts to develop these requirements and help enable AAM. 

The respond by date for this RFI closed on Feb. 1, 2025, at 6 p.m. EST.

View the full RFI announcement here.

NASA Research Opportunities in Aeronautics

NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) uses the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) process to solicit proposals for foundational research in areas where ARMD seeks to enhance its core capabilities.

Competition for NRA awards is open to both academia and industry.

The current open solicitation for ARMD Research Opportunities is ROA-2023 and ROA-2024.

Here is some general information to know about the NRA process.

• NRA solicitations are released by NASA Headquarters through the Web-based NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES).
• All NRA technical work is defined and managed by project teams within these four programs: Advanced Air Vehicles Program, Airspace Operations and Safety Program, Integrated Aviation Systems Program, and Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program.
• NRA awards originate from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, Ames Research Center in California, Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and Armstrong Flight Research Center in California.
• Competition for NRA awards is full and open.
• Participation is open to all categories of organizations, including educational institutions, industry, and nonprofits.
• Any updates or amendments to an NRA is posted on the appropriate NSPIRES web pages as noted in the Amendments detailed below.
• ARMD sends notifications of NRA updates through the NSPIRES email system. In order to receive these email notifications, you must be a Registered User of NSPIRES. However, note that NASA is not responsible for inadvertently failing to provide notification of a future NRA. Parties are responsible for regularly checking the NSPIRES website for updated NRAs.

ROA-2024 NRA Amendments

Amendment 1

(Full text here.)

Amendment 1 to the NASA ARMD Research Opportunities in Aeronautics (ROA) 2024 NRA has been posted on the NSPIRES web site at https://nspires.nasaprs.com.

The announcement solicits proposals from accredited U.S. institutions for research training grants to begin the academic year. This NOFO is designed to support independently conceived research projects by highly qualified graduate students, in disciplines needed to help advance NASA’s mission, thus affording these students the opportunity to directly contribute to advancements in STEM-related areas of study. AAVP Fellowship Opportunities are focused on innovation and the generation of measurable research results that contribute to NASA’s current and future science and technology goals.

Research proposals are sought to address key challenges provided in Elements of Appendix A.8.

Notices of Intent (NOIs) are not required.

A budget breakdown for each proposal is required, detailing the allocation of the award funds by year. The budget document may adhere to any format or template provided by the applicant’s institution.

Proposals were due by April 30, 2024, at 5 PM ET.

Amendment 2
UPDATED ON MARCH 31, 2025

(Full text here.)

University Leadership Initiative (ULI) provides the opportunity for university teams to exercise technical and organizational leadership in proposing unique technical challenges in aeronautics, defining multi-disciplinary solutions, establishing peer review mechanisms, and applying innovative teaming strategies to strengthen the research impact.

Research proposals are sought in six ULI topic areas in Appendix D.4.

Topic 1: Safe, Efficient Growth in Global Operations (Strategic Thrust 1)

Topic 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft (Strategic Thrust 2)

Topic 3: Ultra-Efficient Subsonic Transports (Strategic Thrust 3)

Topic 4: Safe, Quiet, and Affordable Vertical Lift Air Vehicles (Strategic Thrust 4)

Topic 5: In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance (Strategic Thrust 5)

Topic 6: Assured Autonomy for Aviation Transformation (Strategic Thrust 6)

This NRA will utilize a two-step proposal submission and evaluation process. The initial step is a short mandatory Step-A proposal, which is due June 26, 2025. Those offerors submitting the most highly rated Step-A proposals will be invited to submit a Step-B proposal. All proposals must be submitted electronically through NSPIRES at https://nspires.nasaprs.com. An Applicant’s Workshop will be held on Thursday April 30, 2025; 1:00-3:00 p.m. ET (https://uli.arc.nasa.gov/applicants-workshops/workshop9) (Page will be live closer to the event.)

An interested partners list for this ULI is at https://uli.arc.nasa.gov/partners. To be listed as an interested lead or partner, please send electronic mail to hq-univpartnerships@mail.nasa.gov with “ULI Partnerships” in the subject line and include the information required for the table in that web page.

Amendment 3

(Full text here)

Commercial Supersonic Technology seeks proposals for a fuel injector design concept and fabrication for testing at NASA Glenn Research Center.

The proposal for the fuel injector design aims to establish current state-of-the-art in low NOx supersonic cruise while meeting reasonable landing take-off NOx emissions. The technology application timeline is targeted for a supersonic aircraft with entry into service in the 2035+ timeframe.

These efforts are in alignment with activities in the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate as outlined in the NASA Aeronautics Strategic Implementation Plan, specifically Strategic Thrust 2: Innovation in Commercial High-Speed Aircraft.

Proposals were due by May 31, 2024 at 5 pm EDT.

Amendment 4
UPDATED ON JANUARY 16, 2025

(Full text here)

University Student Research Challenge seeks to challenge students to propose new ideas/concepts that are relevant to NASA Aeronautics.  USRC will provide students, from accredited U.S. colleges or universities, with grants for their projects and with the challenge of raising cost share funds through a crowdfunding campaign.  The process of creating and implementing a crowdfunding campaign acts as a teaching accelerator – requiring students to act like entrepreneurs and raise awareness about their research among the public.

The solicitation goal can be accomplished through project ideas such as advancing the design, developing technology or capabilities in support of aviation, by demonstrating a novel concept, or enabling advancement of aeronautics-related technologies.

Notices of Intent are not required for this solicitation.

Proposals for Cycle 3 are due June 26, 2025.

Proposals can also be submitted later and evaluated in the second and third cycles.

The USRC Q&A/Info Session and Proposal Workshop will be held on the days/times below. Please join us on TEAMS using the Meeting Link, or call in via +1 256-715-9946,,317928116#.

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NASA Trains for Orion Water Recovery Ahead of Artemis II Launch

Preparations for NASA’s next Artemis flight recently took to the seas as a joint NASA and Department of Defense team, led by NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program, spent a week aboard the USS Somerset off the coast of California practicing procedures for recovering the Artemis II spacecraft and crew.

Following successful completion of Underway Recovery Test-12 (URT-12) on Monday, NASA’s Landing and Recovery team and their Defense Department counterparts are certified to recover the Orion spacecraft as part of the upcoming Artemis II test flight that will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a 10-day journey around the Moon.  

“This will be NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon under the Artemis program,” said Lili Villarreal, the landing and recovery director for Artemis II. “A lot of practice led up to this week’s event, and seeing everything come together at sea gives me great confidence that the air, water, ground, and medical support teams are ready to safely recover the spacecraft and the crew for this historic mission.”

Once Orion reenters Earth’s atmosphere, the capsule will keep the crew safe as it slows from nearly 25,000 mph to about 325 mph. Then its system of 11 parachutes will deploy in a precise sequence to slow the capsule and crew to a relatively gentle 20 mph for splashdown off the coast of California. From the time it enters Earth’s atmosphere, the Artemis II spacecraft will fly 1,775 nautical miles to its landing spot in the Pacific Ocean. This direct approach allows NASA to control the amount of time the spacecraft will spend in extremely high temperature ranges.

The Artemis II astronauts trained during URT-11 in February 2024, when they donned Orion Crew Survival System suits and practiced a range of recovery operations at sea using the Crew Module Test Article, a stand -in for their spacecraft.

For the 12th training exercise, NASA astronauts Deniz Burnham and Andre Douglas, along with ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, did the same, moving from the simulated crew module to USS Somerset, with helicopters, a team of Navy divers in small boats, NASA’s open water lead – a technical expert and lead design engineer for all open water operations – as well as Navy and NASA medical teams rehearsing different recovery scenarios.

“Allowing astronauts to participate when they are not directly involved in a mission gives them valuable experience by exposing them to a lot of different scenarios,” said Glover, who will pilot Artemis II. “Learning about different systems and working with ground control teams also broadens their skillsets and prepares them for future roles. It also allows astronauts like me who are assigned to the mission to experience other roles – in this case, I am serving in the role of Joe Acaba, Chief of the Astronaut Office.” 

As the astronauts arrive safely at the ship for medical checkouts, recovery teams focus on returning the spacecraft and its auxiliary ground support hardware to the amphibious transport dock.

Navy divers attach a connection collar to the spacecraft and an additional line to a pneumatic winch inside the USS Somerset’s well deck, allowing joint NASA and Navy teams to tow Orion toward the ship. A team of sailors and NASA recovery personnel inside the ship manually pull some of the lines to help align Orion with its stand, which will secure the spacecraft for its trip to the shore. Following a safe and precise recovery, sailors will drain the well deck of water, and the ship will make its way back to Naval Base San Diego.

The Artemis II test flight will confirm the foundational systems and hardware needed for human deep space exploration, taking another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for human missions to Mars.

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Old Missions, New Discoveries: NASA’s Data Archives Accelerate Science

Every NASA mission represents a leap into the unknown, collecting data that pushes the boundaries of human understanding. But the story doesn’t end when the mission concludes. The data carefully preserved in NASA’s archives often finds new purpose decades later, unlocking discoveries that continue to benefit science, technology, and society.

“NASA’s science data is one of our most valuable legacies,” said Kevin Murphy, NASA’s chief science data officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “It carries the stories of our missions, the insights of our discoveries, and the potential for future breakthroughs.”

NASA’s science data is one of our most valuable legacies.

Kevin Murphy

Chief Science Data Officer, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate manages an immense amount of data, spanning astrophysics, biological and physical sciences, Earth science, heliophysics, and planetary science. Currently, NASA’s science data holdings exceed 100 petabytes—enough to store 20 billion photos from the average modern smartphone. This volume is expected to grow significantly with new missions.

This vast amount of data enables new discoveries, connecting scientific observations together in meaningful ways. Over 50% of scientific publications rely on archived data, which NASA provides to millions of commercial, government, and scientific users.

Managing and stewarding such massive volumes of information requires careful planning, robust infrastructure, and innovative strategies to ensure the data is accessible, secure, and sustainable. Continued support for data storage and cutting-edge technology is key to ensuring future generations of researchers can continue to explore using science data from NASA missions. 

Modern technology, such as image processing and artificial intelligence, helps unlock new insights from previous observations. For example, in 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft conducted a historic flyby of Uranus, capturing detailed data on the planet and its environment. Decades later, in the early 2000s, scientists used advanced image processing techniques on this archival data to discover two small moons, Perdita and Cupid, which had gone unnoticed during the initial analysis.

In 2024, researchers revisited this 38-year-old archival data and identified a critical solar wind event that compressed Uranus’s magnetosphere just before the Voyager 2 flyby. This rare event, happening only about four percent of the time, provided unique insights into Uranus’s magnetic field and its interaction with space weather.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched in 2009, continues to provide data that reshapes our understanding of the Moon. In 2018, scientists analyzing the LRO’s archival data confirmed the presence of water ice in permanently shadowed regions at the Moon’s poles. 

In 2024, new studies out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, showed widespread evidence of water ice within the permanently shadowed regions outside the lunar South Pole, further aiding lunar mission planners. This discovery not only holds implications for lunar exploration but also demonstrates how existing data can yield groundbreaking insights.

NASA’s data archives uncover the secrets of our own planet as well as others. In 2024, archaeologists published a study revealing a “lost” Mayan city in Campeche, Mexico that was previously unknown to the scientific community. The researchers identified the city in archival airborne Earth science data, including a 2013 dataset from NASA Goddard’s LiDAR Hyperspectral & Thermal Imager (G-LiHT) mission.

The Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) project provides frequent high-resolution observations of Earth’s surface. Data from HLS has been instrumental in tracking urban growth over time. By analyzing changes in land cover, researchers have used HLS to monitor the expansion of cities and infrastructure development. For example, in rapidly growing metropolitan areas, HLS data has revealed patterns of urban sprawl, helping planners analyze past trends to predict future metropolitan expansion.

1985

2010

19852010

1985

2010

Before and After

Urban Growth in Ontario, California

1985-2010

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Image Details

Thirty-five miles due east of downtown Los Angeles lies the city of Ontario, California. These natural color Landsat 5 images show the massive growth of the city between 1985 and 2010. The airport, found in the southwest portion of the images, added a number of runways, and large warehousing structures now dominate the once rural areas surrounding the airport. In these images, vegetation is green and brown, while urban structures are bright white and gray. A large dry riverbed in the northeast corner is also bright white, but its nonlinear appearance sets it apart visually. Researchers use archival data from Landsat and other satellites to track the growth of cities like Ontario, CA over time.

These discoveries represent only a fraction of what’s possible. NASA is investing in new technologies to harness the full potential of its data archives, including artificial intelligence (AI) foundation models—open-source AI tools designed to extract new findings from existing science data.

“Our vision is to develop at least one AI model for each NASA scientific discipline, turning decades of legacy data into a treasure trove of discovery,” said Murphy. “By embedding NASA expertise into these tools, we ensure that our scientific data continues to drive innovation across science, industry, and society for generations to come.”

Developed under a collaboration between NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer, IBM, and universities, these AI models are scientifically validated and adaptable to new datasets, making them invaluable for researchers and industries alike.

“It’s like having a virtual assistant that leverages decades of NASA’s knowledge to make smarter, quicker decisions,” said Murphy.

The team’s Earth science foundation models—the Prithvi Geospatial model and Prithvi Weather model—analyze vast datasets to monitor Earth’s changing landscape, track weather patterns, and support critical decision-making processes.

Building on this success, the team is now developing a foundation model for heliophysics. This model will unlock new insights about the dynamics of solar activity and space weather, which can affect satellite operations, communication systems, and even power grids on Earth. Additionally, a model designed for the Moon is in progress, aiming to enhance our understanding of lunar resources and environments.

This investment in AI not only shortens the “data-to-discovery” timeline but also ensures that NASA’s data archives continue to drive innovation. From uncovering new planets to informing future exploration and supporting industries on Earth, the possibilities are boundless.

By maintaining extensive archives and embracing cutting-edge technologies, the agency ensures that the data collected today will continue to inspire and inform discoveries far into the future. In doing so, NASA’s legacy science data truly remains the gift that keeps on giving.

By Amanda Moon Adams
Communications Lead for the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer

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Artemis II Core Stage Integration – Complete!

Technicians from NASA and primary contractor Amentum join the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the stacked solid rocket boosters for the Artemis II mission at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 23, 2025. The core stage is the largest component of the rocket, standing 212 feet tall and weighing about 219,000 pounds with its engines. The stage is the backbone of the rocket, supporting the launch vehicle stage adapter, interim cryogenic propulsion stage, Orion stage adapter, and the Orion spacecraft.

Artemis II is the first crewed test flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.

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