NASA has increasingly embraced public-private partnerships for achieving its strategic goals and objectives for expanding the frontiers of knowledge, capabilities, and opportunities in space. The next step for human spaceflight is the development of deep space exploration capabilities and demonstrating these capabilities in accordance with NASA’s Moon to Mars strategy, objectives, and architecture.

An important part of NASA’s strategy is to stimulate the commercial space industry while leveraging those same commercial capabilities through future contracts and public-private partnerships to deliver mission capabilities. The initial Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) was released in 2014 with selections made in 2015. NASA released an updated NextSTEP-2 Omnibus in 2016 and subsequently issued 17 solicitations as NextSTEP-2 BAA Appendices, resulting in more than 50 contracts. 

In September 2024 NASA made further updates and issued the NextSTEP-3 Omnibus as a mechanism to support additional solicitations for proposals to develop space exploration technologies, capabilities, and concepts. The current version is available below: 

NextSTEP References

Links to many of the references cited in the NextSTEP Omnibus Broad Agency Announcement are provided below:

• SAM.gov
• NASA FAR Supplement
• NASA’s Moon to Mars Strategy and Objectives Development
• Federal Acquisition Regulation
• 2023 M2M Architecture Definition Document
• NPR 8715.1, NASA Safety and Health Programs
• Code of Federal Regulations
• Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB)
• NASA Plan for Increasing Access to the Results of Scientific Research
• NASA Policy Directive 1360.2 Initiation and Development of International Cooperation in Space and Aeronautics Programs
• Procurement Class Deviation (PCD) 12-01A
• Modified FAR 52.227-14 (Data Rights) with NASA note on Additional Purposes Clause
• NASA Section H Clause: Additional Purposes for Limited Rights Notice (FAR 52.227-14, Alt II)
• NASA Plan for Increasing Access to Results of Scientific Research