NASA Non-Procurement Partnerships Joe Kroener Director, NASA Partnership Office What are NASA Partnerships?

• NASA regularly engages in a wide range of activities with a multitude of external entities; in a broad sense, all of these activities can be considered “partnerships” • Space Act Agreements (SAAs): A specific type of partnership instrument done under NASA’s “other transactions” authority under the Space Act • Other partnering authorities: üEconomy Act üCommercial Space Launch Act üFederal Technology Transfer Act ü…and more!

2 What are NASA Partnerships?

NASA partnership agreements are typically one of the following types: • Reimbursable (partner reimburses NASA, in full or in part, for access to unique NASA resources); • Non-reimbursable (no exchange of funds collaborations); or • Unfunded (NASA provides resources other than funding to the partner) to help advance a technology or area of interest relevant to NASA’s missions • Partnership agreements such as SAAs are not procurement instruments; NASA does not procure goods or services for the benefit of the Agency through partnership agreements

3 NASA’s Partnership Portfolio

The U.S. private sector Number of Active Agreements and % of is NASA’s largest partner Total by Partner Segment segment by # of International U.S. Federal agreements, accounting for Partners… Agencies more than a third of 755 (26%) NASA’s 2,866 active U.S. State & Local agreements. Govt. 84 (3%)

U.S. Academic & U.S. Private Education Source: NASA Partnership Agreement Maker Sector 337 (12%) (PAM) system and NASA System for International 1,009 (35%) and External Relations Agreements (SIERA) database as of 9/30/2019 4 NASA Partnership Engagement: Why?

• Facilitates collaborative opportunities with domestic and international partners • Helps NASA resolve gaps in technical capabilities helping us meet our mission objectives • Supports U.S. economic innovation and industrial competitiveness • Meets NASA’s mandate under the Space Act of stimulating the “fullest commercial use of space” and transferring NASA-developed technologies • Helps maintain essential NASA expertise and facilities

• Facilitates NASA’s education and outreach goals

5 Partner Benefits

• Access to unique NASA assets (e.g., specialized clean room, testing facilities/equipment) without incurring a large capital expenditure • Access to unique NASA technical expertise (e.g., specialized consulting and analyses), software, and licensing opportunities • Opportunity to leverage resources by co-funding technology development of mutual interest, while retaining commercial IP rights to partner-developed technologies • NASA brand recognition (Note: NASA does not endorse commercial products or services)

6 Mission Support Enables Commercial Space Partnerships: Moving the U.S. Forward to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond

Marshall Space Flight Center – provides Kennedy Space Center – design, development, testing and renewed a five-year evaluation, support to Virgin Orbit for their reimbursable Commercial LauncherOne rocket program Space Launch Act (CSLA) development. agreement with SpaceX to provide access to KSC’s unique services in support of commercial launch and Johnson Space Center – provides training services to reentry operations. Axiom private astronauts using unique training facilities and associated JSC vendor partners, in support of commercial development activities including pre-flight mission planning for prospective private astronaut trainees to facilitate the commercialization of low earth orbit operations and training.

Goddard Space Flight Center – NASA competitively awarded 19 collaborative provides Space Communications non-reimbursable partnership agreements to Navigation (SCaN) launch and mature industry-developed space reentry services to United Space technologies and help maintain American Alliance, LLC (ULA) for their leadership in space. NASA Centers are commercial, non-Federal partnering with small and large aerospace Launches. companies to provide expertise, hardware and software. These partnerships will advance the commercial space sector and help bring new capabilities to market that could benefit future NASA missions.

The following are examples of agreements focused specifically on enabling commercial space to get to the Moon: JSC and GSFC are working with Blue Origin to mature a navigation and guidance system for safe and precise landing on the Moon; KSC is working with SpaceX to advance their technology to vertically land large rockets on the Moon. 7 KSC is partnering with Lockheed Martin to test in-space plant growth systems that could help NASA harvest plants in deep space. Mission Support Enables Commercial Space Partnerships: Moving the U.S. Forward to the Moon, Mars, and Beyond

Marshall Space Flight Center – Stennis Space Center – expanded its provides long-term usage of agreements with Relativity Space Test Stand 4670, the Saturn V (RSI) to include use of an additional first stage engine test stand, to facility for the purpose of launch Blue Origin for development system manufacture and assembly. and certification testing of their BE3, BE3U, and BE4 engines.

Johnson Space Center – preparing Mission Control Center facilities at JSC in advance of testing hardware, known as Crew Interface Technology Payload, which Ames Research Center – Lockheed Martin will fly on Artemis I to provides wind tunnel testing of evaluate ground to space telephony spacecraft configurations in applications using COTS devices in a deep order to obtain aerodynamic space environment. performance data of launch vehicles for commercial space capabilities. Kennedy Space Center – provides Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) use of High Bay 2 in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and Mobile Launcher Platform 3 (MLP-3) under a reimbursable agreement.

8 NASA Partnership Trends & Future Focus Areas

• NASA Partnerships are ever-evolving and continue to diversify! • External partners and their capabilities are expanding; continuing to make breakthroughs in exploration technology and science that are pertinent to NASA’s missions • Effective partnerships will be vital for successfully accomplishing exciting NASA missions such as Artemis that will enable the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024!

NASA is committed to continuously improving and streamlining partnership processes to maximize flexibility and minimize burden for the Agency and our partners. 9 THANK YOU! Visit us at: Questions? http://www.nasa.gov/partnerships.html Joe Kroener Director, NASA Partnership Office Joe.Kroener@nasa.gov

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