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$39,422,806

National Aeronautics and Space Administration·National Aeronautics and Space Administration

to CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

aerospaceactiveONGOING · MOD OF 2018 CONTRACT
WORK BEGAN2018-10-16·LATEST ACTION2026-03-14·SOURCEUSASPENDING·SOURCE IDCONT_AWD_80NM0019F0001_8000_80NM0018D0004_8000
Award description

PREFIRE (POLAR RADIANT ENERGY IN THE FAR INFRARED EXPERIMENT THE CONTRACT IS THE SPONSORING AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION NASA AND THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY-CONTRACTOR, A PRIVATE NONPROFIT EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION, WHICH ESTABLISHES THE RELATIONSHIP FOR THE OPERATION OF THE FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER-FFRDC KNOWN AS THE JET PROPULSION LABORATORY. THE CONTRACTOR, JPL, IS REQUIRED TO PERFORM WORK THAT IS DESIGNATED IN TASK ORDERS ISSUED BY THE NASA MANAGEMENT OFFICE-NMO CONTRACTING OFFICERS. NASA-SPONSORED WORK: JPLS PRIMARY MISSION IS TO SUPPORT THE NASA SCIENCE MISSION DIRECTORATE-SMD IN CARRYING OUT THE SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES IDENTIFIED IN THE SMD SCIENCE PLAN. THE FOUR BROAD SCIENTIFIC AREAS ARE: EARTH SCIENCE, PLANETARY SCIENCE, HELIOPHYSICS, AND ASTROPHYSICS. IN PERFORMANCE OF THIS CONTRACT, JPL SHALL: 1. SUPPLY A BROAD BASE OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES RELEVANT TO NASA PROGRAM AND PROJECT RESPONSIBILITIES AND ASSIGNMENTS. 2. FOSTER ITS UNIQUE RELATIONSHIP WITH A TOP-TIER UNIVERSITY TO FACILITATE THE INVOLVEMENT OF SCIENTISTS, ENGINEERS, AND STUDENTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY AND RESEARCH COMMUNITIES IN NASA MISSION AND IN SUPPORTING OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. 3. SUPPORT NASA IN ENABLING PROGRAM AND INSTITUTIONAL CAPABILITIES. 4. DEVELOP SPACECRAFT AND INSTRUMENTS THAT ARE SENT TO VARIOUS DESTINATIONS WITH OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, INCLUDING EARTH ORBIT, PLANETS, PLANETARY SATELLITES, ASTEROIDS, AND COMETS. THESE MISSIONS MAY BE ORBITERS, LANDERS, OR ROVERS, AND TYPICALLY INCLUDE CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES REQUIRED TO MEET SCIENTIFIC REQUIREMENTS. 5. PERFORM PROJECT TASKS INVOLVING: I-AUTONOMOUS DEEP-SPACE, INNER-SPACE AND EARTH-ORBITING SPACECRAFT OR MAJOR SUBSYSTEMS, II-EXPERIMENTS, INSTRUMENTS, OR OTHER DEVICES WHICH MAY BE CARRIED AS PAYLOAD ON SPACECRAFTS IN MISSIONS MANAGED BY OTHERS, AND-OR III-GROUND-BASED SYSTEMS. 6. BEYOND ITS PRIMARY MISSION, JPL MAY PERFORM WORK FOR OTHER NASA MISSION DIRECTORATES OR OFFICES. 7. JPL IS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR THE OPERATION, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY INSERTION, AND MANAGEMENT OF NASAS DEEP SPACE NETWORK TO PROVIDE TELECOMMUNICATION AND OPERATION SERVICES, INCLUDING DATA ACQUISITION AND DATA DELIVERY REQUIRED TO MEET ESTABLISHED AGENCY OBJECTIVES. 8. JPL IS ALSO REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN AND CONDUCT AN EDUCATION PROGRAM IN CLOSE COORDINATION WITH THE NASA HEADQUARTERS EDUCATION OFFICE, THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY AT LARGE, AND IN SUPPORT TO NASA STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES TO IMPROVE STUDENT RETENTION IN THE SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS-STEM DISCIPLINES. WORK FOR NON-NASA SPONSORS: JPL MAY PERFORM WORK FOR NON-NASA SPONSORS. THIS WORK WILL BE DESIGNATED IN TASK ORDERS ISSUED BY NMO CONTRACTING OFFICERS BASED ON TASK PLANS INITIATED BY THE CONTRACTOR.

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

Fund JPL operations under NASA's PREFIRE mission to develop spacecraft, instruments, and scientific capabilities for Earth and planetary science.

Sub-sectors
nasa-space-missionsspacecraft-developmentearth-science-instruments
Why this matters

JPL is a critical federally funded research center enabling NASA's science directorate across Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics, and astrophysics missions.

Supply-chain signal

Sustains demand for advanced aerospace contractors, spacecraft subsystems, scientific instruments, and deep-space technology suppliers supporting JPL's mission portfolio.

U.S.–China competition angle

U.S. maintains technological leadership in autonomous spacecraft, deep-space exploration, and Earth observation—areas where China is advancing competing capabilities.

Generated by award_classification v2.0.0 via claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on 2026-05-15. Cost: $0.002877.

Period of performance
Start
2018-10-16
End
2028-03-31
Status
activein 682 days
Other awards from this recipient
Sources

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

$39.4M National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Buildout — The Buildout