Artistic concept of lunar surface technologies and infrastructure capabilities, including in-situ resource utilization oxygen production systems, surface power systems, in‑space manufacturing tools, and advanced nanomaterials production.
NASA
NASA issued a draft Broad Agency Announcement under NextSTEP‑3, Appendix A, on June 29, 2026, to advance concepts that accelerate the technological readiness of critical systems for lunar surface and cislunar architecture.
This solicitation seeks to close key technology gaps and mature capabilities in vertical solar arrays, ISRU oxygen production systems, Stirling radioisotope generators, in‑space manufacturing, and advanced nanomaterials production.
It focuses on identifying technology areas that require further risk reduction and ground‑based testing to mature competing solutions to Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5–6. Funded efforts will advance the technology objectives of NASA’s Moon Base by demonstrating critical systems and accelerating the development of transformative capabilities needed for near‑term mission success.
For more information, read the Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator (LEIA) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) NextSTEP-3 Appendix A – Draft Solicitation on SAM.gov.
NASA Seeks Industry Input to Accelerate Lunar Surface Technologies
3 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
Artistic concept of lunar surface technologies and infrastructure capabilities, including in-situ resource utilization oxygen production systems, surface power systems, in‑space manufacturing tools, and advanced nanomaterials production.
NASA
Long-term lunar exploration requires technology, infrastructure, and operations that function together cohesively on the surface of the Moon. To accelerate the development of key lunar surface systems and reduce risk, NASA and industry must work together in the design, development, testing, and evaluation of innovative solutions that support U.S. space priorities.
NASA is seeking feedback on a draft solicitation for the Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator, an effort to help develop emerging capabilities in surface power, in-situ resource utilization, advanced manufacturing, and innovative nanomaterials. The draft is available for review by U.S. organizations, including industry, educational institutions, and non-profits.
Investments in space technology development unlock the near-impossible for NASA and the nation. A sustained human presence at the Moon requires breakthrough ideas from a competitive U.S industrial base, and we are proud to work toward that vision with our commercial partners.
Greg Stover
Director of the Advanced Research and Technology Division, Research and Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington
This review period allows NASA an opportunity to gather feedback on the draft solicitation, including the requirements, schedules, proposal instructions, and evaluation approaches. NASA strongly encourages industry to carefully review the draft and identify any areas of ambiguity, or concerns. Industry input will help inform the solicitation’s final requirements, acquisition planning, and solicitation parameters.
The Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator includes five topics that address gaps in technology needed for exploring the Moon and the cislunar region between Earth and the Moon as identified in NASA’s Civil Space Shortfalls. The topics focus on near-term mission priorities:
Surface power: Access to continuous, localized, and scalable power generation throughout the lunar day and night is essential for initial phases of the Moon Base plan. NASA’s needs include power generation, power management and distribution, and energy storage.
Radioisotope power: A type of nuclear energy technology that uses heat to produce electric power for operating spacecraft systems in the darkest, dustiest, and most remote places in our solar system.
In-situ resource utilization: As a sustained presence grows at the Moon, opportunities to harvest lunar resources could lead to safer, more efficient operations with less dependence on Earth. Advancing in-situ resource utilization technologies could support production of fuel, water, and oxygen from local materials, expanding exploration capabilities.
In-space advanced manufacturing: Long-term human presence beyond Earth orbit requires autonomous in-space production of essential tools and materials. Advancing in-space manufacturing will be critical to reducing reliance on Earth resupply, as well as optimizing mission flexibility and resilience at the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere in deep space.
Innovative nanomaterials: U.S. objectives related to the commercialization of low Earth orbit, building a sustained presence on the lunar surface, and pursuing deeper space exploration will involve work in demanding operational environments and under stringent mission constraints. To meet the agency’s most ambitious space exploration goals, this topic seeks to advance the commercial availability, performance, quality, and uniformity of nanomaterials to address environmental, mass, and performance challenges.
Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator awardees will be expected to design, develop, and demonstrate prototype systems and generate validated performance data, analytical models, and operational insights through testing and demonstration activities to mature technology and manufacturing applications.
The solicitation, Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-3 (NextSTEP-3) Appendix A Lunar Enabling Infrastructure Accelerator (Solicitation No: 80GRC026R0008), is available on SAM.gov and is open for comment through July 17, 2026.
For more information about NASA’s space technology website as a reference for current technology strategy and priorities, visit:
NASA Announces Winners for 2026 Human Lander Challenge
3 Min Read
NASA Announces Winners for 2026 Human Lander Challenge
NASA has announced the top student-developed solutions for environmental control and life support systems in future crewed lunar landers from participants in the 2026 Human Lander Challenge. The announcement marks the culmination of months of research by university teams working to advance technologies supporting the agency’s Artemis program that will return American astronauts to the Moon in 2028.
The challenge concluded June 25 following final technical presentations near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Since September 2025, student teams from across the nation have designed systems‑level approaches to enhance the performance and reliability of environmental control and life support technologies essential for astronauts during deep space missions.
University students and advisors from 11 finalist teams gathered in Huntsville, home to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, June 23-25 for the agency’s third annual Human Lander Challenge. This year’s competition challenged students to consider solutions for environmental control and life support systems for long duration spaceflight. These technologies are essential for maintaining breathable air, potable water, and thermal stability for astronauts during deep space missions.
NASA/Charles Beason
“As NASA continues preparing for sustained lunar exploration and future human missions to Mars, the development of robust, efficient, and reliable life support systems remains a critical focus area,” said Natalie Martinez-Vlasoff, mission capabilities and risk reduction advanced capabilities integration lead at NASA Marshall. “The 2026 student teams demonstrated a strong understanding of the range of design choices for these systems, and how well-considered, systems-level approaches can improve reliability and crew safety for astronauts using future human landing systems. It is encouraging to see students contributing ideas that help make long-duration lunar exploration more achievable.”
The finalist teams gathered at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville on June 22 to present their research to a panel of NASA and aerospace industry experts, as well as to their peers, during a collaborative poster session. The annual competition concluded with an awards ceremony recognizing the top-performing teams out of the 12 finalists.
NASA announced California Polytechnic State University as the overall winner and recipient of the $10,000 top prize award for their Peltier-based Hydration Accumulation Terminal project. Purdue University won second place and a $5,000 award for work on an Enhanced Potable Water Dispenser, followed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach,in third place with a $3,000 award for their Advanced Quality Orbital Rehydration Assembly project.
The Human Lander Challenge is designed to inspire and engage the next generation of engineers and scientists as NASA and its partners prepare to send astronauts to the Moon in preparation for future missions to Mars. The human landing system is the mode of transportation that will take astronauts to the lunar surface and back to lunar orbit under Artemis.
Through competitions like the Human Lander Challenge, NASA fosters the next generation of engineers and researchers while advancing the technologies needed for astronauts to explore deep space. These initiatives support the agency’s exploration goals while cultivating hands-on, problem-solving and systems thinking among future aerospace professionals. Student solutions from the Human Lander Challenge could be incorporated into current work for the next-generation Artemis landers.
NASA’s Human Landing System Program, managed by NASA Marshall, sponsors the challenge, which is administered by the National Institute of Aerospace.
Through the Artemis program, NASA will send astronauts to explore the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars – for the benefit of all.
For more information about the Artemis program, visit:
NASA Tests New Refuel Device for Future In-Space Refueling Missions
Engineers from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and L3Harris con-duct operational testing on a developmental cryocoupler, a vital technology for future in-orbit spacecraft refueling.
NASA/Tyson Eason
For NASA’s next generation of deep space exploration missions, spacecraft may need to refuel in Earth orbit before pushing farther into the solar system. Similar to how a gas pump needs a nozzle to fit your fuel tank, future spacecraft could require a special device in order to fill up prior to departure, known as a cryocoupler.
Cryocouplers would allow spacecraft to connect to future orbital propellant depots, which would serve as the gas stations of space. The technology comes with the challenge of reliably transferring cryogenic, or super-cold, fluids without losing propellant or performance. Cryogenic propellants like liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen must stay chilled to hundreds of degrees below zero Fahrenheit, placing strict demands on the materials, seals, and mechanisms that move them.
“In-orbit cryogenic refueling between two spacecraft has yet to be done and remains one of the toughest engineering challenges in spaceflight,” said Travis Belcher, cryocoupler project manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “These propellant transfers are essential for the kinds of missions NASA wants to fly in the future, so developing a coupler that can handle ultra-cold propellants is a critical step toward making that capability real.”
Ground-based couplers like those used to fill the SLS (Space Launch System) for Artemis missions are not an option for orbiting propellant transfers. Those couplers release quickly while a rocket is launching and must be manually reconnected for the next flight. They also are not designed to operate in the harsh environment of space and are much larger than what would be used to refill an orbiting spacecraft’s fuel tank.
To meet these challenges, NASA tested a cryocoupler developed by L3Harris.
“The cryocouplers we’re working on can attach and detach multiple times and are fully automated, so astronauts won’t have to perform a spacewalk to transfer propellant,” said Belcher. “They’re rigorously designed to withstand space and sized for the expected tank designs.”
A joint NASA and L3Harris team recently conducted two types of tests at NASA Marshall. To ensure the cryocoupler can handle the extremely cold temperatures it will be exposed to, they ran liquid nitrogen at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit through multiple connected and disconnected configurations to observe how the coupler reacts to thermal contraction, flow, and significant temperature differences between propellant and materials.
The team also put the cryocoupler through operational tests to determine its performance limits. In this setup, one coupler half was mounted to a robotic table that could move and rotate in any direction, allowing it to simulate misaligned docking with the other half, which remained stationary above the table. The cryocoupler is designed to accommodate some misalignment in case a spacecraft and depot are not perfectly aligned when docking.
“These cryocouplers are very early in development, so the testing is mostly focused on basic functionality,” said Belcher. “Future test campaigns will design them for specific missions and assess them more meticulously based on that mission’s requirements.”
The cryocoupler testing was done as part of a 2022 Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity, a partnership where NASA centers provide select companies with expertise, facilities, hardware, and software at no cost.
The Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio project, a cross-agency team based at NASA Marshall and NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, oversees cryocoupler development.
To learn more about cryogenic fluid management, visit:
Partners, NASA Ready for June Launch of Swift Boost Mission
5 min read
Partners, NASA Ready for June Launch of Swift Boost Mission
NASA is on a mission to lift its Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory along with partners Katalyst Space and Northrop Grumman. Watch to get a sneak peek. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Katalyst Space/Northrop Grumman
A mission to raise the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is poised for launch no earlier than Tuesday, June 30, 6:23 a.m. EDT (10:23 p.m. UTC+12), from Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean.
A robotic servicing satellite called LINK, built by Katalyst Space, will blast into orbit on a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. LINK will rendezvous with, grapple, and slowly raise Swift’s altitude over several months, preventing it from re-entering Earth’s atmosphere later this year.
“Swift is NASA’s multitool when it comes to studying the cosmos,” said S. Bradley Cenko, principal investigator, Swift, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It observes the sky using a wide range of light and rapidly points at short-lived outbursts, alerting other facilities in space and on the ground to help coordinate follow-up observations. For the last two decades, Swift has been a key player in NASA’s efforts to understand how the universe works, and we’re looking forward to getting back to that work after the boost is complete.”
This mosaic of M31 merges 330 individual images taken by the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope aboard Swift. It is the highest-resolution image of the galaxy ever recorded in the ultraviolet. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000 light-years high.
NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)
Our planet’s atmosphere creates drag on all spacecraft in low Earth orbit, gradually reducing their altitudes if they don’t have propulsion systems to counteract the effect.
A recent bout of increased solar activity magnified this impact on Swift, which launched in November 2004.
Rather than allowing Swift to re-enter the atmosphere as many missions do, NASA is using the opportunity to advance the U.S. commercial satellite servicing industry.
In September, the agency contracted Katalyst to attempt to boost the observatory. The company would have less than one year to design, build, test, and launch a satellite to meet, grab, and lift Swift to nearly its original orbit.
“Swift wasn’t designed to be serviced,” said Ghonhee Lee, CEO of Katalyst. “By demonstrating we can quickly and cost-effectively extend its lifetime, we’re creating a blueprint for servicing spacecraft that were never designed for on-orbit maintenance. If we’re going to build an enduring presence beyond Earth, we need the capability to manipulate our environment in space. That means deploying robotic spacecraft that can reposition, repair, refuel, and refit satellites after launch.”
Katalyst engineers attach LINK to a baseplate inside the Space Environment Simulator at NASA Goddard on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. Once all the air was pumped out of the 27-foot-diameter chamber, the team practiced firing the satellite’s ion thrusters and operated one of the robotic arms while they cycled through space-like hot and cold temperatures.
NASA/Sophia Roberts
The LINK spacecraft weighs about 880 pounds and stands about 5 feet tall, about a third of Swift’s overall size. Nearly 20 feet of solar panels will power three ion thrusters and a trio of robotic arms.
LINK completed environmental testing that mimicked launch and space-like conditions at NASA Goddard this spring, as well as additional preflight assessments at Katalyst’s facility in Broomfield, Colorado.
For the boost to have its best chance of success, Swift needs to stay above an altitude of about 185 miles.
By the end of last year, however, orbital predictions generated by NASA showed the observatory reaching that threshold as early as July.
To slow Swift’s descent, the operations team at Penn State’s Eberly College of Science altered how they managed and oriented the spacecraft.
Unlike during normal operating procedures, where Swift looks at spots on the sky that are scientifically interesting, the team now selects targets that steer Swift into the most streamlined position. They also reduced power consumption as much as possible to place the satellite’s large solar panels in a more aerodynamic orientation.
Recent orbital predictions show these changes will keep Swift above critical altitude until this fall.
Stargazer, Pegasus XL, and LINK await takeoff on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Engineers control the temperature and humidity inside the nose cone of the rocket to keep the satellite and avionics safe from weather and changing environmental conditions during flight.
NASA/Ron Beard
The satellite will launch aboard the Pegasus XL.
“We can deploy Pegasus from almost anywhere in the world using our Stargazer, a modified L-1011 aircraft,” said Wes Collier, vice president of launch systems at Northrop Grumman. “That combination of flexibility and responsive access to space will help LINK quickly reach Swift, giving the teams time to complete the boost.”
Earlier this month, engineers loaded LINK into the Pegasus XL and attached the rocket to Stargazer at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The aircraft and its payload departed for Kwajalein Atoll on Thursday, June 18, where it now awaits launch.
Once in orbit, LINK will undergo several weeks of commissioning as Katalyst evaluates the spacecraft’s propulsion, navigation, and sensor systems. It then will slowly approach and survey Swift before grabbing the observatory with its robotic arms and slowly raising the orbit to nearly 370 miles.
“This is a high-risk, high-reward mission,” said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, division director, Astrophysics, NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Swift plays a notable role in our fleet. We have much to gain by attempting this boost, which is more affordable than trying to replace Swift’s capabilities and allows NASA to advance the nation’s satellite servicing industry, for the benefit of all.”
