NASA Investments in Small Business Earns an 'A' from SBA

During an Investing in America event Tuesday with NASA leadership, the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that NASA investments in small business have earned an “A” for the agency for the sixth consecutive year, exceeding its goals by 18%.

"Small businesses are integral to everything we do from finding first galaxies to investigating Mars and the universe to sending a new generation of explorers to the Moon through Artemis."

Bill Nelson, NASA

In total, NASA has directly invested $3.6 billion in over 1,700 small businesses across the country, creating good-paying jobs and opportunities for Americans in all 50 states.

Hosted by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman unveiled the Fiscal Year 2022 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The scorecard looks at how federal agencies rank on meeting their small business goals.

“We’re excited to receive yet another “A” in this year’s Small Business Administration’s scorecard. NASA is investing in America by partnering with small businesses around the country and in every single state,” said Nelson. “Small businesses are integral to everything we do from finding first galaxies to investigating Mars and the universe to sending a new generation of explorers to the Moon through Artemis. Together, every advancement and achievement we make is for humanity.”

SBA’s scorecard is an assessment tool that measures how well federal agencies reach their small business and socio-economic prime contracting and subcontracting goals set by the White House.

“Space exploration opens endless possibilities for understanding our own world and our universe, and American small businesses are the engines powering the next exciting era of exploration and achievement,” said Guzman.

NASA Investments in Small Business Equal 36 Percent of the Agency's Budget

NASA Investments in small business include more than $3.6 billion dollars directly to various socioeconomic small businesses, along with $3.5 billion subcontracted to small businesses from the agency’s large contractors. The $7.1 billion dollars obligated through its prime and subcontracts to small business equates to 36% of NASA’s total obligated dollars in Fiscal Year 2022.

“It’s the small business innovators, thinkers, and doers who are helping us imagine and prepare for the future of space exploration,” said Melroy. “Our work creates good-paying American jobs; strengthens innovation and development opportunities; and increases competitiveness; which in turn creates a robust and global space economy and sets the rules and norms in space.”

The agency’s Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP), led by Glenn Delgado, associate administrator for OSBP, works to integrate small businesses into the future of space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research. OSBP works in tandem with NASA’s Office of Procurement, led by Karla Smith Jackson, deputy chief acquisition officer and assistant administrator for procurement, to identify prime and subcontracting opportunities for the small business community to work with NASA.

(Source: NASA news release. Images provided and from file)