NASA Glenn Provides Booster to Small Business

CLEVELAND – The NASA Glenn Research Center has awarded more than $130 million in procurement contracts to small businesses across the nation since Oct. 1, the start of the current fiscal year, NASA Glenn officials report.

The spending represents 60% of NASA Glenn’s fiscal 2015 procurement budget to date. Since fiscal year 2010, the value of all contracts Glenn awarded to small businesses totaled approximately $1.45 billion, with an annual average award of $242 million.

“Small businesses are crucial to sustaining Glenn’s game-changing research and development of aerospace technologies,” said Jim Free, NASA Glenn director. “Because of the investment Glenn makes in the small business sector, we’re helping further economic growth while creating jobs and positioning these businesses for an ever expanding role in NASA’s missions on Earth and in space.”

Besides traditional contracts, Glenn also supports small business through its Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, and Small Business Technology Transfer, or STTR programs, Free continued.

These awards fund small business research supporting Glenn’s six core competencies: air-breathing propulsion; power, energy storage, and conversion; in-space propulsion and cryogenic fluids management; communications technology and development; in-space physical sciences and biomedical technologies; and materials and structures for extreme environments.

To date in fiscal  2015, Glenn’s SBIR and STTR award amounts total approximately $5.5 million. Since 2010, the center has issued SBIR and STTR awards totaling $119.5 million. Annually, Glenn’s awards reflect roughly 20% of NASA’s total SBIR and STTR budget.

SOURCE: NASA Glenn Research Center.

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