The weekly federal-spending brief. One email a Sunday. Free. No tracking.
The BuildoutBeta

$232,928,992

National Aeronautics and Space Administration·National Aeronautics and Space Administration

to AEROJET ROCKETDYNE, INC.

aerospaceactiveONGOING · MOD OF 2016 CONTRACT
WORK BEGAN2016-05-16·LATEST ACTION2026-06-24·SOURCEUSASPENDING·SOURCE IDCONT_AWD_NNC16CA21C_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-
Award description

IGF::OT::IGF NASA, THROUGH THE SPACE TECHNOLOGY MISSION DIRECTORATE (STMD,) SEEKS TO DEMONSTRATE AN ADVANCED SOLAR ELECTRIC PROPULSION (EP) SYSTEM THAT WILL ENABLE FUTURE DEEP SPACE HUMAN AND ROBOTIC EXPLORATION APPLICABLE TO THE UNITED STATES PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR SPACE NEEDS. THE PURPOSE OF THE ADVANCED ELECTRIC PROPULSION (EP) SYSTEM (AEPS) CONTRACT IS THE DEVELOPMENT AND DELIVERY OF EP STRING SETS TO SUPPORT AN ADVANCED SEP DEMONSTRATION MISSION. DURING THE CONTRACT BASE PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE, THE CONTRACTOR WILL DEVELOP, TEST, AND DELIVER ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT END ITEMS THAT WILL REDUCE THE RISK OF DEVELOPING THE FLIGHT END ITEMS. DURING THE OPTION PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE, IF EXERCISED, THE CONTRACTOR WILL DEVELOP, VERIFY, AND DELIVER THE FLIGHT END ITEMS.

Verbatim from USAspending.gov. Capitalization, abbreviations, and codes are unchanged.

The Buildout's read

What the model surfaced from this award

Confidence: high
In plain English

Latest obligation on a 2016 NASA contract for Aerojet Rocketdyne to develop and deliver advanced solar electric propulsion systems for deep space missions.

Sub-sectors
advanced-propulsiondeep-space-explorationnasa-stmd
Why this matters

Electric propulsion is critical for efficient long-duration human and robotic exploration beyond Earth orbit; this 10-year effort reduces technical risk before flight deployment.

Supply-chain signal

Aerojet Rocketdyne's propulsion subsystems feed into NASA's broader deep-space architecture; upstream suppliers of power electronics and xenon propellant see sustained demand.

U.S.–China competition angle

Advanced electric propulsion is a key differentiator in space exploration; U.S. investment here maintains technological edge in cislunar and Mars-class missions.

Generated by award_classification v2.1.0 via claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on 2026-05-20. Cost: $0.003340.

Period of performance
Start
2016-05-16
End
2027-08-04
Status
activein 400 days
Sources

The Buildout does not edit federal records. Any inaccuracy reflects the upstream source; it will update here when corrected there.

$232.9M National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Buildout — The Buildout