NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has released a draft Request for Proposals for the Landsat 10 spacecraft, according to GovConWire reporting from May 22, 2026. The solicitation opens a full and open competition for the spacecraft bus contract, with a target launch date of 2031 and a performance period of approximately 5.5 years, including options for launch delays.
Solicitation Structure and Timeline
The draft RFP is structured around two contract types: Firm Fixed Price and Time and Materials. The combination reflects the dual nature of spacecraft development work — fixed costs for well-defined deliverables such as fabrication and integration milestones, with time-and-materials provisions available for the more variable engineering and testing phases where scope is harder to pin down precisely in advance.
NASA has set a presolicitation response deadline of June 2, 2026, giving industry a short window to engage with the agency's initial documentation and flag questions or concerns before the final solicitation is published. The final RFP is expected in late June 2026. Following that release, contractors will have approximately 30 days to prepare and submit proposals — a compressed timeline that suggests NASA wants to move quickly toward contract award to protect the 2031 launch target.
The contractor selected will be responsible for spacecraft design, systems engineering, development, fabrication, integration, and testing. The scope also includes integration of the Landsat Next Instrument Suite into the spacecraft bus, as well as launch support and on-orbit commissioning activities. This is a broad statement of work that covers the full lifecycle of spacecraft development from detailed design through the early months of on-orbit operations.
The Landsat Next Instrument Suite and Raytheon's Role
One significant boundary condition for this competition is already in place. Raytheon holds the existing contract for the Landsat Next Instrument Suite — a $506.7 million award made in 2024. The spacecraft bus contractor selected under this new solicitation will be required to integrate that instrument suite, meaning the two prime contractors must work together through a government-defined interface.
That arrangement is common on large NASA science missions, where instruments and spacecraft buses are often developed under separate contracts by separate primes. The integration interface is typically defined by the government and flowed down to both contractors as a requirement, with NASA's mission systems engineering team responsible for managing the seam between the two. For the spacecraft bus offeror, understanding and accepting the Raytheon instrument interface requirements will be a key technical element of any competitive proposal.
Raytheon's instrument contract is not at stake in the current solicitation, but the relationship between the bus and instrument primes will shape system-level performance. Offerors that have prior experience integrating third-party science instrument suites into Earth observation spacecraft will be better positioned to propose credible integration and test plans.
Landsat Program Background
Landsat is a joint program between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey and represents the longest continuous record of Earth surface observation from space, with data stretching back to 1972, according to NASA's official Landsat 10 mission page. That record has become a foundational scientific dataset for land use monitoring, agricultural assessment, deforestation tracking, water resource management, and climate research. Governments, universities, and commercial users around the world rely on Landsat data as part of operational workflows.
Each successive Landsat satellite has built on the instrumentation and data quality of its predecessors. Landsat 9, launched in September 2021, is the current operational satellite and continues to provide imagery alongside Landsat 8. Landsat 10 is planned as the next generation of the program, continuing that multi-decade legacy with updated instrument capabilities under the Landsat Next framework.
What It Means for Contractors
The full and open competition designation means no large business set-aside restrictions apply — any qualified contractor can compete. For established spacecraft bus manufacturers, this is a straightforward opportunity to pursue a high-profile NASA science mission contract. For smaller firms with relevant capabilities, teaming arrangements with larger integrators will likely be the path to participation given the scope and complexity of the work.
The approximately 5.5-year performance period, inclusive of launch delay options, represents a long-term program commitment. Contractors pricing a Firm Fixed Price portion of the work will need to account for inflation, supply chain variability, and workforce retention across nearly six years of execution. The Time and Materials provisions offer some relief for cost risk on the less predictable phases, but the overall contract structure still places substantial performance risk on the awardee.
The June 2 presolicitation response deadline is the first formal engagement point. Industry stakeholders that want to shape requirements or flag technical concerns before the final RFP is published should treat that date as an action item. The 30-day proposal window after final RFP release will not leave much time for companies that have not already been tracking this requirement and developing their technical approach.
Given the Raytheon instrument suite already under contract, offerors should request or develop clarity on the instrument-to-spacecraft interface control documents as early as possible. Competitive differentiation at the proposal stage will likely come down to integration heritage, schedule confidence, and demonstrated experience with Earth observation missions of comparable complexity.
The statement of work's breadth — spanning design, engineering, fabrication, integration, testing, launch support, and commissioning — means this is not a contract that can be pursued by a narrow specialist. A prime contractor will need genuine end-to-end spacecraft development capability or a team that collectively covers the full scope. The 30-day proposal window after the final RFP is released underscores that well-prepared teams will have a structural advantage over competitors that begin forming their response after the final solicitation drops.
Landsat 10 is not a discretionary acquisition. The program underpins a data continuity commitment that NASA and USGS have maintained for more than 50 years. Contractors that have supported prior Landsat missions, contributed to the Landsat 9 program, or worked on comparable Earth observation platforms at Goddard will be positioned to speak credibly to schedule confidence and risk reduction — two evaluation criteria that tend to carry significant weight on science missions with firm launch windows and no margin for extended delays.
