SAN FRANCISCO – NASA’s Earth Science Division is exploring partnerships with external organizations to support instruments mounted on the International Space Station and free-flyer missions.
“For some of these missions that are well into or well beyond their planned lifetime, we decided to explore whether or not there might be partners who would be interested in taking on some of the burden with us of keeping these missions going,” Karen St. Germain, Earth Science Division director, said Jan. 26 at the American Meteorological Society annual meeting in Houston.
For example, NASA invited organizations to propose partnerships for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), a satellite launched in 2014 to measure carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere and identify sources and sinks of the greenhouse gas. NASA’s 2026 budget request proposed terminating the OCO-2 program.
“Given the potential value of OCO-2 data and the expected mission lifetime, NASA is exploring partnership opportunities to continue OCO-2 operations and data collection,” according to the Jan. 8 Announcement for Partnership Proposals (AFPP). “Overall, the purpose of the partnership(s) is to make efficient use of unique national assets (i.e., OCO-2) developed from taxpayer investments.”
The AFPP “envisions one or more partnerships for OCO-2 with clear benefits to the selected partner(s),” the announcement added.
Novel Ideas
The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) was the subject of another NASA AFPP. Seven CYGNSS microsatellites, launched in 2016, observe GPS signals bouncing off the ocean to measure hurricane wind speeds and intensity. The constellation also detects soil moisture and flooding.
“NASA is open to all proposals and novel ideas for productive partnerships, including full to partial use of existing mission operations teams via reimbursable terms,” according to the Jan. 8 AFPP. Multiple partnerships as well as partnerships with consortiums will be considered.
“This is something new for us to see what kind of interest is out there, and see what interesting partnership opportunities may come up,” St. Germain said during the NASA Earth Science Town Hall. “Stay tuned as we work through that process.”
NASA’s Earth Science Division discussed potential partnerships after the Trump Administration proposed steep cuts in 2026 funding. The 2026 spending bill Congress approved earlier this month instead trimmed the division’s budget approximately 1.8 percent.
Even in a nearly flat budget, it’s challenging for NASA to continue to fund many of its extended missions. While the missions are not costly individually, the extended missions compete for limited operations funding and must repeatedly undergo reviews to ensure they continue to produce valuable scientific observations.
