The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released asolicitation, entitled Announcement of Flight Opportunities (AFO) for Payloads Requiringa Near-Zero or Reduced Gravity Environment: Maturing Crosscutting Technologies thatAdvance Multiple Future Space Mission to Flight Readiness Status.Applications are due on or before December 16, 2011 and selections will be announced byFebruary 10, 2012. The solicitation is available by opening the NASA ResearchOpportunities homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com , selecting "Solicitations," thenselecting "Open Solicitations," and, finally, selecting "NOCT110." NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) seeks to mature towards flight readinessstatus crosscutting technologies that perform relevant environment testing and advancemultiple future space missions. To facilitate this goal, NASA is providing access tocertain flight opportunities available to the Agency, on a no-exchange-of funds basis, toentities that have technology payloads meeting specified criteria. They may be exposedto a near-zero or reduced gravity environment on high-altitude balloons, flying onaircraft that provide parabolic flight trajectories and on suborbital reusable launchvehicles (sRLVs) that are potentially capable of flying to altitudes above 100 km. Referto https://flightopportunities.nasa.gov/platforms for specific information on vehicleand flight characteristics.This call is open to all individuals and organizations, U.S. and non-U.S. Suchorganizations may include educational institutions, industry, nonprofit organizations,Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, NASA Centers, the Jet PropulsionLaboratory (JPL), other Government agencies, and partnerships between such entities. Science payloads will not be evaluated under this particular announcement. Prospectiveresponders with science payloads are encouraged to respond to open solicitations forscience, such as NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Research Opportunities in Spaceand Earth Sciences (ROSES) call. Please refer to Section IV(f) and Appendix A1 section4.6 of the ROSES2011 solicitation for more information: http://tinyurl.com/4vp3hck This current call is one in a cycle of Announcement of Flight Opportunities throughDecember 31, 2014. The number of flight opportunities selected via this announcementwill be determined through a competitive process based on evaluation of the responses andsubsequent ability to negotiate a no-exchange-of-funds Space Act Agreement. Suchselections are also subject to the availability of appropriated funds and number ofcontracted flights available at any given time. Detailed submission instructions are provided under "Other Documents" on the NSPIRESwebpage associated with the NOCT110 solicitation. Potential applicants are urged toaccess the NSPIRES electronic proposal system well in advance of the proposal due date tofamiliarize themselves with its structure and to enter the requested information. Comments and questions may be addressed by e-mail to the Flight Opportunities ProgramPayload Manager, Dougal Maclise, at
[email protected]. Responses to inquirieswill 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 ofpersons/institutions who submit questions will be preserved.NASA/Dryden Flight Research Center