Space — week of 2026-08-17: National Aeronautics and Space Administration ran +57% against its four-week average
2026-08-17 – 2026-08-23
- Period
- 2026-08-17 – 2026-08-23
- Generated
- 2026-08-30 07:10
- Sources
- USAspending transactions and SEC EDGAR Form D — primary records
- Review
- Automated ingest, not yet read by a person. Not press reports
- Excluded
- Contract ceilings and offering ceilings are not counted. Money recorded more than once is collapsed first
Federal capital committed to space between 2026-08-17 and 2026-08-23, from National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Every figure below traces to a USAspending award record.
Data currency
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration reporting is current through 2026-07-01 (1 month lag). This week is reportable.
- Amounts are obligations (money the government committed), not outlays. Outlay data is not available in the transaction feed.
- Contract ceilings are excluded from every total below.
This week
| Awards | Actions | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|
| From the primary record | 139 | 142 | $343.4M |
These figures are collected by machine from government transaction records. No person reads the rows or adds interpretation. Every amount below links back to the record it came from — check the source rather than trusting this report.
Momentum
This week ran +57% against the prior four-week average of $218.8M. Capital is accelerating into this theme.
| Week | Amount | Awards |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-20 | $172.6M | 33 |
| 2026-07-27 | $424.2M | 99 |
| 2026-08-03 | $105.2M | 158 |
| 2026-08-10 | $173.1M | 172 |
| 2026-08-17 | $343.4M | 139 |
Where it went
| Segment | Actions | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Space Flight R&D | 46 | $190.0M |
| Space Science | 15 | $47.4M |
| Operations & Ground Systems | 10 | $31.2M |
| Satellites & Payloads | 5 | $1.4M |
| Sensing & Navigation | 3 | $537K |
Segments come from federal classification codes. Where an award matches more than one segment the amount is split, so segment totals never exceed the total above.
New money vs incremental funding
1 more| Actions | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| New awards | 24 | $16.9M |
| Modifications to existing contracts | 118 | $322.2M |
Recipients with no prior award in our data
15 more18 organisations received money this week that we have not seen receive an award before. This is the earliest signal available in this dataset — it precedes the funding announcements that reach the press.
| Recipient | Amount | Record |
|---|---|---|
| K2M DESIGN, INC | $2.1M | link |
Did last week's first-time recipients come back
Last week 36 recipients appeared for the first time in our data. 6 of them received money again this week.
Counted by recipient identity, not by name. We state the count only; whether it means anything is left to the reader.
Concentration
8 moreThe top five recipients took 76% of this week's total. That is highly concentrated — this week reflects a few large decisions rather than broad demand.
| Recipient | Actions | This week | Prior total | Awards | Last seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP. | 1 | $150.0M | $94.8M | 5 | 2026-07-14 |
Largest actions
10 more- $150.0M — SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES CORP.（2026-08-21, modification） · National Aeronautics and Space Administration · AR32 R&D- SPACE: FLIGHT (APPLIED RESEARCH/EXPLORATORY DEVELOPMENT) · prior $94.8M over 5 actions, last 2026-07-14 · record
- $33.0M — NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION（2026-08-20, modification） · National Aeronautics and Space Administration · AR21 R&D- SPACE: SCIENCE/APPLICATIONS (BASIC RESEARCH) · prior $3.73B over 35 actions, last 2026-08-06 · record
Method
3 more- Source: USAspending transaction records for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Each row is one funding action, not a contract total.
- Amounts are obligations — what the government became liable to pay. Outlays are tracked separately per award, not mixed into this weekly figure, because they are cumulative from contract start.
First-time recipients (16), concentration, which office is spending, and every large action. The paid edition adds the candidates matching your own mandate, why each was selected, the primary record, and what to verify next.
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