The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) established the Tipping Point program in 2015 to spur the development of promising space technologies and accelerate their infusion into commercial applications. Through public-private partnerships, NASA provides critical funding to industry partners to help mature innovative technologies to market readiness.
Overview of the Tipping Point Program
The goals of the Tipping Point program are twofold:
- To foster the development of space technologies that have reached a development “tipping point”, meaning an investment has significant potential to mature the technology and enable infusion into commercial space capabilities.
- To benefit future NASA missions by investing in cutting-edge industry capabilities.
Essentially, NASA helps fund critical ground-based testing, flight demonstrations, and other activities to advance the readiness level of space technologies. In return, NASA benefits from gaining access to these innovative capabilities for its exploration missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
The program issues periodic Announcements of Collaboration Opportunities (ACOs) and NASA Research Announcements (NRAs) inviting companies to propose public-private partnerships. Proposals are competitively selected based on their technical merit, viability for commercialization, and potential to support NASA’s strategic goals.
Types of Awards
NASA utilizes Space Act Agreements for Tipping Point partnerships, which involve the exchange of funds or resources between NASA and industry partners to achieve mutual goals. Awards fall into two structures:
Funded Space Act Agreements – NASA provides funding to the industry partner to support specific technology development activities according to milestones. The partner contributes resources and funding as well.
Unfunded Space Act Agreements – NASA provides technical expertise, testing facilities, hardware loans, software, and other in-kind contributions. The partner funds the technology development.
Funded Space Act Agreements are more common for Tipping Point selections. NASA typically contributes $2 million to $100 million per award, while partners provide 20%+ co-investment for larger companies and as little as 10% for small businesses.
Focus Areas
The Tipping Point program targets technologies aligned with NASA, White House, and Congressional space priorities. Initial solicitations focused on propulsion, small spacecraft, robotic tools, and entry/descent/landing capabilities.
As NASA plans human missions to the Moon and Mars, recent solicitations increasingly emphasize technologies for:
- Cryogenic fluid management
- In-situ resource utilization
- Surface power
- Extreme environment protection
- Autonomous operations
- Communications
- Precision landing and navigation
There is also strong interest in technologies supporting commercialization of low Earth orbit as well as cis-lunar space.
Impact
Since 2015, NASA has invested over $800 million in 92 Tipping Point partnerships with 77 companies. Additional industry investment has exceeded $300 million.
Notable successes so far include:
- Masten Space Systems: Completed 12 successful flights advancing precision landing and hazard avoidance technologies. This directly contributed to Masten winning a $75.9 million NASA contract to deliver payloads to the Moon. Unfortunately, Masten subsequently declared bankruptcy in 2023.
- Maxar Technologies: Completed structural testing of a large expandable fabric habitat. This technology could enable long-duration stays on the Moon and Mars.
- Astrobotic: Completed development of terrain relative navigation and lidar sensors for precision landing. This helped position Astrobotic to win a $199.5 million contract to deliver NASA payloads to the Moon in 2023 (subsequently delayed to 2024 due to availability of launch vehicle).
Several other Tipping Point partners like Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and SpaceX have gone on to win major NASA contracts related to their advanced technologies.
Current Status and Future Outlook
The latest round of Tipping Point selections was announced in July 2023, awarding $150 million to 11 industry partners. The demand for Tipping Point funding continues to increase with each solicitation.
Future solicitations are likely to increasingly focus on supporting commercialization of the lunar surface and meeting the resource extraction, material processing, power, and other needs of long-duration lunar bases. NASA also continues seeking technologies to enable future human missions to Mars in the late 2030s and 2040s.
The Tipping Point program has demonstrated success maturing game-changing space technologies through public-private partnerships. With NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration plans accelerating, Tipping Point will continue serving as a valuable model for spurring commercial innovation.