The U.S. space agency NASA says it has selected 12 Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) to advance concept studies and technology development projects in advanced propulsion, habitation and small satellites.

NASA will team up with the selected companies to create strategies and tools to enable commercial endeavors in space and human exploration to deep-space destinations.

Some of the advanced electric propulsion projects will work on developing propulsion technology systems in the 50-300 kilowatt (kW) range, NASA says in a press release. Current propulsion technology used by NASA generates less than five kW.

The three NextSTEP advanced propulsion projects— $400,000 to $3.5 million— per year, per award will have three years to focus on ground testing efforts. The selected companies are:

• Ad Astra Rocket Co. of Webster, Texas
• Aeroject Rocketdyne Inc. of Redmond, Wash.
• MSNW LLC of Redmond, Wash.

The seven NextSTEP habitat projects will have initial performance periods of up to one year, at a value of $400,000 to $1 million for the study and development efforts, and the potential for follow-on phases to be defined during the initial phase. The selected companies are:

• Bigelow Aerospace LLC of North Las Vegas, Nev.
• The Boeing Co. of Pasadena, Texas
• Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Ala.
• Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems International of Windsor Locks, Conn.
• Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. of Denver, Colo.
• Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia
• Orbital Technologies Corp. of Madison, Wis.

The CubeSat projects selected through this award will have the opportunity to fly as secondary payload missions on the first flight of the Space Launch System, Exploration Mission-1.

The selected organizations are:

• Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company of Denver, Colo.
• Morehead State University of Morehead, Ken.