Space Force picks 15 for $981M test, evaluation support contract

Space Force has awarded 15 companies positions on a six-year, $981 million contract for engineering services to help the service branch in carrying out test, evaluation and training operations.

The Pentagon’s Thursday awards digest said 20 companies submitted proposals for the contract that goes by this convoluted name -- National Space Test and Training Complex Innovative Technology and Engineering - Space Test and Range Capability Development.

NSTTC is a network of test and training range services across multiple environments and geographic locations, with the primary headquarters operating out of Schriever Space Force Base near Colorado Springs.

Winners are as follows:

• Amentum
• BAE Systems
• Boeing
• CACI International
• Firefly Aerospace
• L3Harris Technologies
• Lockheed Martin
• Northrop Grumman
• Pacific Crest Alliance, a joint venture of La Jolla Logic and Sierra Nevada Corp.
• Parsons Corp.
• Redwire
• Rocket Lab
• Sierra Space
• Viasat
• York Space Systems

Also known by the acronym NSTTC NITE-STAR, this contract focuses on Space Force’s efforts to provide operators an environment of live/physical and synthetic/digital ranges for their test and training work.

Solicitation documents released in March break out the categories of work as software development, hardware development, modeling and simulation, and infrastructure.

Space Force set up the contract to support its System Delta 81 organization, plus the Operational Test and Training Infrastructure team.