NASA TechFlights

NASA TechFlights

Funds U.S.-based industry, academia, and non-profit organizations flight-testing space technologies on commercial suborbital and orbital vehicles.

NASA TechFlights is a solicitation mechanism run by NASA's Flight Opportunities program within the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). It is a cooperative agreement instrument that funds external organizations to fly and test space technologies on commercial suborbital and orbital vehicles. The program sits under the broader Flight Opportunities initiative, which NASA established to reduce the cost and risk of developing space technologies by giving developers access to commercial flight platforms.

TechFlights does not publish a per-award maximum or a total pool on its program pages. Past solicitations have covered partial or full flight-test costs, but no dollar figure is publicly stated by the program. Awards are structured as cooperative agreements, meaning NASA and the awardee share responsibilities and costs. No cost-share percentage is published.

Eligibility is open to U.S.-based industry (for-profit and non-profit), academic institutions, and other non-NASA organizations. Foreign entities are not eligible. There is no stated revenue cap, team-size restriction, or company-age requirement. The technology must address priorities of NASA and the nation.

TechFlights has not issued a solicitation since 2023. NASA's program page states that no TechFlights solicitation was issued in 2024 and that NASA instead issued a TechLeap Prize challenge. The program has not been formally discontinued — the page describes the situation as the program not having issued a solicitation in a given year, not as a program termination. Status is between_cycles. Monitor nasa.gov/stmd-solicitations-and-opportunities for future solicitation announcements.

Applications were historically submitted through NASA's solicitation system (NSPIRES or SBIR.nasa.gov). No current apply link exists because no active solicitation is open.