NASA has awarded a contract to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California, to continue operating the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), also in Pasadena.

This cost-plus fixed-fee indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has a maximum value of $30 billion.

It begins on 1 October with a five-year base period of performance, followed by five one-year options that could extend it to 30 September 2028.

Under this contract, Caltech will continue to “develop and sustain” core competencies in support of NASA-sponsored work in the areas of Earth and planetary sciences, heliophysics (the study of the effects of the Sun on the solar system) and astrophysics, along with aeronautics and space activities that will include the development of spacecraft and instruments.

Caltech will also manage NASA-sponsored programmes that carry out “competed and peer-reviewed research”, NASA partnerships with other government agencies, academia and the private sector, as well as the operation, research and management of NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Information about NASA and agency programmes can be found at the Web site (www.nasa.gov).