Who buys Product and Service Code AR11 (Space R&D Services; Space Flight, Research and Supporting Activities; Basic Research), who wins it, what's open now and which contracts expire next — from FY2026 USAspending awards and live SAM.gov solicitations.
Contract data as of Oct 18, 2026 (USAspending) · recent coverage verified weekly
| Quarter | Awards | Obligated | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 FY2026 | 6 | $5.7M | — |
| Q2 FY2026 | 11 | $37.9M | +559% |
| Q3 FY2026 | 17 | $74.5M | +97% |
| Q4 FY2026 | 18 | $92.4M | +24% |
Federal fiscal quarters (Q1 = Oct–Dec). Awards are counted in the quarter they start; obligations are the award's obligated amount.
| # | Contractor | Obligated | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SIERRA LOBO INC | $75.7M | 36.0% |
| 2 | THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY LLC | $42.5M | 20.2% |
| 3 | L3HARRIS TECHNOLOGIES, INC | $19.2M | 9.1% |
| 4 | BAE SYSTEMS PLC | $15.5M | 7.3% |
| 5 | LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP | $14.6M | 6.9% |
| 6 | ANALYTICAL MECHANICS ASSOCIATES, INC. | $13.8M | 6.6% |
| 7 | NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION | $11.4M | 5.4% |
| 8 | THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO | $6.5M | 3.1% |
| 9 | NANORACKS, LLC | $4.8M | 2.3% |
| 10 | BUSEK CO., INC. | $2.1M | 1.0% |
Registrations are rolled up to their corporate parent (USAspending parent UEI), so a company with several SAM registrations ranks once.
| Agency | Obligated | Share |
|---|---|---|
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $210.5M | 100.0% |
| Start | Contract · recipient | Obligated |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 28, 2026 | SPACE REACTOR-1 FREEDOM NUCLEAR POWER MODULE POWER CONVERSION SYSTEM DO-14-305 SIERRA LOBO INC · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $38.5M |
| Aug 28, 2026 | SPACE REACTOR-1 FREEDOM NUCLEAR POWER MODULE POWER CONVERSION SYSTEM DO-14-304 SIERRA LOBO INC · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $37.2M |
| Aug 1, 2026 | BOLT0 RISK REDUCTION/ A PHASED CAMPAIGN TO ESTABLISH COORDINATED LUNAR TIME. THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY LLC · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $5.0M |
| Aug 5, 2026 | SITE-AGNOSTIC ENERGETIC LUNAR ION AND NEUTRON ENVIRONMENT (SELINE) THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY LLC · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $4.7M |
| Sep 3, 2026 | DEVELOPMENT OF DATABASES OF REFRACTORY COMPOSITES FOR THE VALIDATION OF FLIGHT STRUCTURES FOR HYPERSONIC FLIGHT. SIC/SIC, CARBON CARBON AND CARBON SILICON CARBIDE ARE HIGH TEMPERATURE COMPOSITE MATERI WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $1.9M |
The largest obligations on awards that started in the window’s latest quarter.
| Ends | Contract · recipient | Obligated |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 31, 2026 | FIRST DDT AND E, ARES I-X, AND FLIGHT TESTS. FIRST STAGE WILL BE A FIVE SEGMENT, SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER DERIVED FROM THE SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM (SSP) SOLID ROCKET BOOSTER (SRB)/REUSABLE SOLID ROCKET MOTOR (RSRM). THE CONTRACTOR SHALL FURNISH THE NECESSARY MANAGEMENT, ENGINEERING, LABOR, FACILITIES, TO NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $4.4B |
| Nov 30, 2026 | THE TANDEM RECONNECTION AND CUSP ELECTRODYNAMICS RECONNAISSANCE SATELLITE (TRACERS) IS PROPOSED BY THE CONTRACTOR IN RESPONSE TO THE NATIONAL AERONAUTIC AND SPACE ADMINSTRATION'S (NASA) 2016 HELIOPHYSICS SMALL EXPLORER (SMEX) ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY (AO). THIS STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW) DESCRIBES T THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $184.3M |
| Sep 30, 2027 | THE COMPTON SPECTROMETER AND IMAGER (COSI) REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $135.6M |
| Feb 7, 2027 | THE ULTRAVIOLET EXPLORER (UVEX) CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $107.0M |
| Mar 31, 2027 | THE ATMOSPHERIC WAVES EXPERIMENT (AWE) IS PROPOSED BY THE UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION (USURF) IN RESPONSE TO NASAS 2016 HELIOPHYSICS EXPLORERS MISSION OF OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT NNH12ZDA005O-HPEXMO. THIS STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW) DESCRIBES THE WORK TO BE CONDUCTED BY USURF DURING THE PH UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY SPACE DYNAMICS LABORATORY · National Aeronautics and Space Administration | $55.9M |
84 contracts under this code reach their final end date (options included) in the next 12 months.
| Set-aside type | Obligated | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Small business set-aside | $0 | 0.0% |
| 8(a) | $0 | 0.0% |
| SDVOSB | $0 | 0.0% |
| WOSB / EDWOSB | $0 | 0.0% |
| HUBZone | $0 | 0.0% |
| No set-aside (full & open) | $64.9M | 100.0% |
Share of obligations on awards whose set-aside type is recorded — 31% of this market's dollars. Most USAspending bulk-archive records leave the field blank, so blank awards are excluded rather than counted as full & open.
No open solicitations right now. New notices post daily — get an alert when one does.
Links open the notice on SAM.gov.
Source: USAspending.gov contract awards (prime awards with a start date from Oct 1, 2025 through Sep 30, 2026), SAM.gov contract opportunities, and SBA size standards. Recompetes are contracts whose final end date — options included — falls in the next 12 months. Figures are recomputed when a new USAspending load lands. See our data sources.