The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released a solicitation, entitled Announcement of Flight Opportunities (AFO) for Payloads Maturing Crosscutting Technologies that Advance Multiple Future Space Missions to Flight Readiness Status. Applications are due on or before May 11, 2012 and selections will be announced by July 2012. The solicitation is available by opening the NASA Research Opportunities homepage at "http://nspires.nasaprs.com," selecting "Solicitations," then selecting "Open Solicitations," and, finally, selecting "NOCT110." NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) 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. They may be exposed to a near-zero or reduced gravity environment on high-altitude balloons, flying on aircraft that provide parabolic flight trajectories and on suborbital reusable launch vehicles (sRLVs) that are potentially capable of flying to altitudes above 100 km. Refer to https://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. This current call is Call No. 4 in a cycle of Announcement of Flight Opportunities through December 31, 2014. The number of flight opportunities selected via this announcement will be determined through a competitive process based on evaluation of the responses and subsequent ability to negotiate a no-exchange-of-funds Space Act Agreement. Such selections are also subject to the availability of appropriated funds and number of contracted flights available at any given time. Detailed submission instructions are provided under "Other Documents" on the NSPIRES webpage associated with the NOCT110 solicitation. Potential applicants are urged to access the NSPIRES electronic proposal system well in advance of the proposal due date to familiarize themselves with its structure and to enter the requested information. Comments and questions may be addressed by e-mail to the Flight Opportunities Program Payload Manager, Dougal Maclise, at
[email protected]. Responses to inquiries will be answered by e-mail and also 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.