NASA awards Momentus task order for in-space resupply mission formulation

NASA issued a task order to Momentus for formulation work on the Fly Foundational Robots Resupply mission on Oct. 22, 2026, the company announced from San Jose, California.

The U.S. commercial space company Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) works in satellite transportation and in-space infrastructure services and is one of two participants NASA selected to shape the mission’s concept of operations, technical interfaces, and system design. NASA says the mission aims to advance capabilities for future servicing, assembly, and manufacturing work in orbit. Once formulation ends, NASA plans to choose one participant to enter the implementation phase and fly the mission. The choice will decide which company builds and flies the first resupply mission under the program.

NASA said these flight demonstrations speed up space robotics by using frequent, lower-cost missions to add capability in steps. In Momentus’s concept, a dedicated resupply spacecraft would carry a pallet holding robotically enabled payloads from NASA’s TechLeap Prize Robotically Manipulated Payload Challenge. Those payloads come from the NASA prize challenge, and the resupply spacecraft would deliver them for on-orbit robotic operations.

Once launched, the spacecraft would carry out orbital maneuvers and then rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking with the vehicle that hosts the FFR robotic arm. After docking, the arm on FFR’s spacecraft would move payloads from the resupply vehicle to the host platform so robotic operations and demonstrations can continue.

The mission design might move orbital hardware between spacecraft and show how teams can reuse robotic equipment already in orbit.

Momentus plans to fly its Vigoride-8 mission in 2027 with two NASA payloads aboard. Work is also under way on a Vigoride-9 spacecraft. John Rood, the company’s chief executive officer, said the task order lets the company show its skills in orbital transportation, spacecraft operations, and rendezvous mission design.

“This task order provides an opportunity for Momentus to demonstrate its capabilities in orbital transportation, spacecraft operations, and rendezvous mission design,” Rood said.

NASA has published the ISAM State of Play since 2021, and the document has grown from an internal reference into an industry resource across multiple editions. The 2026 edition runs to 368 pages and covers current ISAM capabilities across 11 functional areas, including robotic manipulation, refueling, and structural assembly.

NASA presents the document as an encyclopedia and roadmap for technologies that let operators service, assemble, and manufacture spacecraft in orbit instead of launching them as integrated systems. It gives mission designers a baseline of what exists now and where ISAM hardware is heading next.

Dale Arney, senior team lead for the ISAM Technology Portfolio at NASA Langley, said unnamed companies have asked Langley to include them in the State of Play so they can see competitive intelligence. Arney said those companies asked whether NASA holds any proprietary information, and he said it does not. He said the ISAM field has grown faster than a straight line since the document began.

NASA created the State of Play so its centers could share one reference point, and it has since become the industry’s go-to resource for understanding what is possible versus what remains conceptual. The entry rules demand that ISAM hardware exist as physical ground prototypes or flight demonstrations. Ideas that exist only as PowerPoint decks, with no proof of work, must wait until the next review cycle to qualify.

ISAM capabilities would make possible missions that traditional single-launch approaches cannot achieve, such as large telescopes, mobile national security assets, and upgradable commercial systems. Some future missions will need telescopes too big for any launch vehicle fairing. Long-lasting national security assets need to stay mobile and resilient, and commercial systems must manage on-orbit upgrades to the latest technology without replacing the whole spacecraft.

NASA designed the State of Play to be collaborative, and team member John Mulvaney called it a crowdsource document. NASA adds more industry interviews each year to keep the document accurate and complete as the field grows.

“We like to refer to it as kind of a crowdsource document,” Mulvaney said. NASA centers such as Ames, Glenn, Marshall, Kennedy, and Johnson contribute, as do international developers who meet the hardware criteria. Wide involvement helps document capabilities throughout the ISAM ecosystem.

The 2026 edition adds developer profiles and facilities documentation that show who performs ISAM work and where. Designers of missions can use the information to find possible partners and facilities for orbital infrastructure projects. Companies entering or growing their ISAM work can use the document for competitive context and collaboration opportunities, serving as a market reference and networking tool as commercial interest grows.

NASA says the State of Play supports work from lunar infrastructure to on-orbit manufacturing and supplies the shared vocabulary and capability baseline that new ecosystems need. The agency calls it a record of what exists now and where hardware is heading next, not speculation about the future. NASA.gov hosts the 2026 edition for download.