AeroSpace, AstroPhysics, Technology

[heomd] Announcement of Flight Opportunities #8 Now Open

[heomd] Announcement of Flight Opportunities #8 Now Open


The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dryden Flight Research Center has released a solicitation entitled “NASA Announcement of Flight Opportunities (AFO) for Payloads Maturing Crosscutting Technologies that Advance Multiple Future Space Missions to Flight Readiness Status.” 


The current solicitation cycle, AFO #8, provides access to parabolic flights and to flights on suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicles (sRLV).

Applications are due on or before 11:59 PM Eastern Time on January 16, 2014, and selections will be announced in March 2014 (target). 

The solicitation is available by opening the NASA Research Opportunities homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com, selecting “Solicitations,” then selecting “Open Solicitations,” and, selecting “NOCT110 Announcement of Flight Opportunities.” 

To go directly to the solicitation page, visit http://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/afo/.

NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) seeks to mature towards flight readiness status crosscutting technologies that perform relevant environment testing and advance multiple future space missions. 

To facilitate this goal, NASA is providing access to certain flight opportunities available to the Agency, on a no-exchange-of-funds basis, to entities that have technology payloads meeting specified criteria. 

The payloads may be exposed to a near-zero or reduced gravity environment by flying on aircraft that provide parabolic flight trajectories or on sRLVs that are potentially capable of flying to altitudes above 100 km. Refer to http://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/platforms for specific information on vehicle and flight characteristics.

This call is open to all individuals and organizations, U.S. and non-U.S. Such organizations may include educational institutions, industry, nonprofit organizations, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, NASA Centers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), other Government agencies, and partnerships between such entities.

Science payloads will not be evaluated under this announcement. Prospective responders with science payloads are encouraged to respond to open solicitations for science from the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD).

All applications must be submitted electronically through NSPIRES by an authorized organizational representative (AOR). 

Potential applicants and proposing organizations are urged to access the electronic proposal system well in advance of the application due date to familiarize themselves with its structure and to enter the requested information. 

Note that it may require several weeks for non-U.S. organizations to obtain the registrations needed to submit a proposal.

Comments and questions may be sent via e-mail to peer-review-afo@nasaprs.com . 

Responses to inquiries will be answered by e-mail and may also be included in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document located on the NSPIRES page associated with the solicitation; anonymity of persons/institutions who submit questions will be preserved.

Visit us on the web: http://flightopportunities.nasa.gov
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nasafo
Subscribe to our mailing list: https://lists.nasa.gov/mailman/listinfo/flightopportunities-news

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