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Aerodyne-Amentum venture wins $1.8B NASA contract
The new contract is called COSMOS and includes support for systems used in NASA's primary mission control center.
A joint venture of Aerodyne Industries and Amentum has won a potential nine-year, $1.8 billion contract for broad mission support services that focus on command-and-control systems in space vehicles.
Ascend Aerospace & Technology is poised to begin work under the new COSMOS contract on Dec. 1, which starts the initial five-year base period. The contract also includes a pair of two-year options that would extend work to 2034, NASA said Friday.
COSMOS is the acronym to describe the Contract for Organizing Spaceflight Mission Operations and Systems, for which the Johnson Space Center in Houston is the primary location of performance.
NASA uses the contract to acquire support for its flight operation directorate that oversees programs such as Orion, Space Launch System, International Space Station, Commercial Crew Program and Artemis.
The Federal Procurement Data System says seven companies submitted proposals for the contract. The Ascend JV will help provide systems for the mission control center, mockup environments, training systems, training support for astronauts, instructors and flight controllers.
Ascend is an all-small mentor-protégé program joint venture founded in 2013 to pursue large contracts with NASA.
COSMOS is the successor to the Mission Systems Operations Contract, which Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies won in 2017 and KBR subsequently inherited through its acquisition of SGT in the following year.
NASA has obligated approximately $955.4 million in task order volume against the MSOC contract, according to GovTribe data.