NASA has supported more than 110 projects through the ACO program since the first solicitation in 2015.

Moonprint Solutions will develop flexible insulating coverings to protect rovers, robotic joints, and other systems from lunar dust abrasion.

NASA ACO agreements are collaboration agreements with no direct transfer of funds.

NASA’s resources provided under ACO are valued at about $30 million, and the participating companies have invested $32 million directly.

NASA ACO 2025 selected proposals in transportation, planetary surface operations, in-orbit assembly and maintenance, power management, guidance and navigation, and landing systems.

Lockheed Martin will develop a modular power solution for continuous energy production in permanently shadowed regions of the Moon.

Asteria could support satellite servicing, life-extension operations, and data collection.

Lockheed Martin’s lunar power system includes fiber-laser energy transfer technology and space heat-dissipation solutions.

Kall Morris Inc. will develop Asteria, an add-on satellite retention system that can be installed on spacecraft already in orbit without requiring preinstalled infrastructure.

The new NASA ACO 2025 agreements are expected to last 12 to 24 months.

The Leonardo Vulcano family includes sub-caliber long-range rounds for naval and land artillery frameworks in 155 mm and 120 mm configurations.

Leonardo detailed the ongoing development and operational deployment profiles of its Vulcano precision-guided munition family at Eurosatory 2026 in Paris on June 29, 2026.

The Vulcano 120 mm round is designed to operate within a 10 to 30 km range window.

Leonardo has integrated an alternate operational mode for baseline Inertial Measuring Unit and GPS/GNSS-guided Vulcano rounds to counter heavy GNSS and GPS jamming.

Initial live-fire testing for the Vulcano 120 mm variant is projected to commence within the next three years.

The Vulcano 155 Ballistic Extended Range round is an unguided, low-drag projectile that can reach 50 km from a standard 52-caliber barrel.

Leonardo is doubling its industrial production footprint for the Vulcano munition family.

Baseline Vulcano 120 mm terminal targeting relies on a Semi-Active Laser seeker paired with a VTOL uncrewed aerial vehicle carrying a miniaturized laser designator.

The Vulcano 120 mm variant was first made public in July 2025 to provide beyond-line-of-sight indirect fire capability for main battle tanks.

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems secured a $37.86 million developmental contract from the U.S. Army on June 5, 2026 under the Extended Range Artillery Projectile program.

Diehl Defence supplies the optical and terminal guidance seeker subsystems for the precision-guided Vulcano variants.

The Vulcano 155 Guided Long Range variant uses four front-mounted canard control surfaces and can extend its operational envelope to 70 km.

When operating under heavy electronic countermeasure interference, the Vulcano projectile follows a purely ballistic arc for most of its flight and delays seeker initialization until the final terminal phase.

Leonardo’s Vulcano infrastructure is a joint engineering program with Germany’s Diehl Defence.

The Vulcano 120 mm round executes an automated pitch-up maneuver about 2 to 3 km after clearing the muzzle.

The Extended Range Artillery Projectile contract tasks General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Leonardo, and Diehl Defence with adapting a derivative of the Vulcano 155 Guided Long Range projectile to meet U.S. Army next-generation artillery requirements.

PierSight is targeting a Q1 2027 launch for its first commercial satellite.

PierSight is building a constellation of SAR satellites equipped with AIS sensors for persistent, all-weather ocean studies and monitoring.

Gaurav Seth worked on the advanced dual-frequency radar system on ISRO’s Chandrayaan 2 orbiter.

PierSight has raised $8 million in funding.

NASA replaced the Apollo color camera’s SEC tubes with Electron Bounded Silicon tubes.

PierSight is hiring for various roles.

PierSight was co-selected to build India’s first public-private Earth observation constellation.

NASA added lens caps and backup black-and-white cameras after Apollo 12 to reduce the risk of camera failure on later missions.

Gaurav Seth is the CEO of PierSight.

Katalyst’s operations facility will conduct systems checkouts, instrument calibrations, and thruster verifications for approximately 7 to 14 days after insertion into low Earth orbit.

The launch window for the Swift servicing mission opens no earlier than 6:23 a.m. Eastern Time from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The Link spacecraft will perform orbital phasing burns over a six-week period to match Swift’s orbital velocity and vector.

The Link spacecraft is calculated to raise the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory by 100 miles, or 160 km.

Link will conduct low-thrust orbital maintenance burns over a span of two months after docking with Swift.

The Pegasus rocket will be released from a modified Stargazer L-1011 carrier aircraft at an altitude of 40,000 feet before its first-stage motor ignites.

The Link servicing vehicle is a refrigerator-sized spacecraft designed for autonomous proximity operations and mechanical docking without standardized grapple fixtures.

Katalyst Space Technologies procured a surplus Pegasus rocket from Northrop Grumman for the $30 million mission budget.

The Pegasus rocket is an air-launched, three-stage solid-fuel booster.

NASA restricted the Link mission to successfully executing the orbital boost while avoiding structural impact or sensor contamination.

NASA awarded Katalyst Space Technologies an expedited $30 million firm-fixed-price contract in September 2025 to develop and manufacture the servicing payload.

Swift’s passive orientation maneuvers slowed its descent by an estimated 25 miles.

NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies are scheduled to launch an orbital servicing mission for the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory on June 30, 2026.

Brad Cenko directed Swift to halt scientific imaging and execute passive orientation maneuvers in early 2026.

The mission aims to arrest the atmospheric decay of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and prevent a destructive atmospheric re-entry projected within the next few months.