The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has obligated $101,362,042 on a task order to the California Institute of Technology, which operates NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The award (contract number 80NM0023F0035) was signed May 31, 2023, with a period of performance running through September 30, 2028.

The task order description identifies the work as "CRISTAL Project — Formulation Phase A/B," performed under NAICS code 541715, Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences. It was issued under an existing NASA IDIQ contract vehicle (80NM0018D0004). CRISTAL — the Copernicus Polar Ice and Snow Topography Altimeter — is a European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel Expansion mission targeting a 2027 launch, to which NASA-JPL is contributing an Advanced Microwave Radiometer instrument, according to ESA's eoPortal mission database.

For GovCon practitioners, the award is a reminder that federally funded research and development centers and university-affiliated laboratories like JPL continue to draw sustained NASA task-order funding for formulation-phase work on international science missions, funded through standing IDIQ vehicles rather than open competitions. Caltech is classified in federal award data as a nonprofit, private higher-education institution.

Source: USAspending.gov