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$486,654,377

National Aeronautics and Space Administration·National Aeronautics and Space Administration

to UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

aerospaceactiveONGOING · MOD OF 2002 CONTRACT
WORK BEGAN2002-07-17·LATEST ACTION2026-05-13·SOURCEUSASPENDING·SOURCE IDCONT_AWD_GSFC0200208DNAS502105_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-
Award description

NEXT GENERATION SPACE TELESCOPE NIRCAM THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PROVIDE THE PERSONNEL, SERVICES, MATERIALS, EQUIPMENT, AND FACILITIES NEEDED TO MANAGE AND PERFORM PHASES A THROUGH E OF THE SELECTED NEAR-INFRARED CAMERA (NIRCAM) INSTRUMENT FLIGHT INVESTIGATION. THE CONTRACTOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THAT ALL THE REQUIREMENTS IN THE CONTRACT ARE MET. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PERFORM THE FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES WITHIN EACH PHASE: PHASE A: THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DEFINE THE NIRCAM SCIENCE INVESTIGATION, SCIENCE PAYLOAD, AND MISSION OPERATIONS AND DATA SYSTEMS. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DOCUMENT ITS FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS IN A CONCEPT STUDY REPORT THAT IT SHALL PREPARE AND DELIVER TO THE GOVERNMENT. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DEFINE AND REFINE ITS EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH PLAN DURING PHASE A. PHASES B-D: THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DESIGN, ANALYZE, DEVELOP, FABRICATE, CALIBRATE, INTEGRATE, TEST AND DELIVER THE NIRCAM SCIENCE INSTRUMENT TO NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA) GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER'S (GSFC) JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE (JWST) PROJECT. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL ALSO PLAN AND PREPARE FOR THE MISSION OPERATIONS PHASE DURING PHASES B-D. THIS SHALL INCLUDE DEVELOPING AN OPERATIONS AND CALIBRATION STRATEGY, DEFINING AND PLANNING THE GUARANTEED TIME OBSERVATIONS (GTO) SCIENCE PROGRAM, PREPARING AND TESTING GROUND SOFTWARE IN COLLABORATION WITH THE SCIENCE AND OPERATIONS CENTER, AND PARTICIPATING IN MISSION SIMULATIONS. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL EXECUTE ITS EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH (E/PO) PLAN DURING PHASES B-D. PHASES E: THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PROVIDE THE NECESSARY PERSONNEL, SERVICES, MATERIALS, EQUIPMENT, AND FACILITIES NEEDED TO PERFORM MISSION OPERATIONS AND DATA ANALYSIS (MO&DA) ACTIVITIES. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DIRECT THE EXECUTION OF ITS GTO SCIENCE PROGRAM DURING PHASE E. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL CONTINUE TO EXECUTE ITS E/PO PLAN DURING PHASE E.

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 the 2002 University of Arizona contract to operate and analyze data from the James Webb Space Telescope's near-infrared camera instrument through 2027.

Sub-sectors
jwst-nircam-instrumentspace-telescope-operationsmission-operations-data-analysis
Why this matters

JWST's NIRCam is critical to deep-space observations; sustained funding ensures continuous science operations and data analysis for ongoing astronomical discoveries.

Supply-chain signal

Supports a mature, long-running instrument program with established supply chains for ground software, calibration systems, and mission operations infrastructure.

U.S.–China competition angle

JWST represents U.S. leadership in space-based astronomy; sustained operations maintain technological edge in infrared space instrumentation and data science capabilities.

Generated by award_classification v2.1.0 via claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 on 2026-05-17. Cost: $0.003599.

Period of performance
Start
2002-07-17
End
2027-09-30
Status
activein 457 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.

$486.7M National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The Buildout — The Buildout