The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory LLC (JHU/APL) has received $1,334,597,995 in cumulative obligations from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under a task order for the "Dragonfly Extended Phase B Mission," according to federal spending data. The task order, numbered 80MSFC22F0048, was signed on March 2, 2022, and carries a base-and-all-options ceiling of $1,633,113,441.

The task order was issued under parent indefinite-delivery vehicle 80MSFC20D0004, NASA's Aerospace Research, Development and Engineering Support (ARDES) II contract, and was not competed at the task-order level — consistent with work issued against an existing IDIQ. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is the awarding office. The task order is classified under NAICS code 541715 (Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences) and product/service code AR11.

Dragonfly is NASA's mission to send a rotorcraft lander to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, to study its chemistry and habitability. JHU/APL, a NASA-affiliated research and development center, leads the mission's development. For GovCon practitioners, the task order illustrates how large IDIQ vehicles like ARDES II channel sustained, multi-year funding to a lead research institution for a single flagship mission rather than through a series of separately competed contracts — a structure common across NASA science-mission development, where an FFRDC or university-affiliated lab holds prime responsibility while subcontracting specialized instrument and systems work to industry partners.

Source: USAspending.gov