Tri-Valley Small Business Lands NASA Contract

TRI-VALLEY, CA — A Tri-Valley small business has landed a contract that will provide a nice boost after a year of coronavirus challenges.

Vector Atomic of Pleasanton has been awarded a contract by NASA to prototype and design a Miniature Iodine-Stabilized Oscillator.

"Space missions are critically dependent on precise timing and synchronization," the company said in its proposal. "Future NASA mission including deep space navigation, space-based gravitational wave detectors, and multi-static radar imaging will require timing precision beyond the capabilities of current hardware."

The contract was announced by NASA late last month as part of an initiative to provide a boost to small businesses. The space agency awarded a total of $45 million in contracts for 365 proposals through its inaugural Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program.

“At NASA, we recognize that small businesses are facing unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). “This year, to get funds into the hands of small businesses sooner, we accelerated the release of the 2021 SBIR/STTR Phase I solicitation by two months. We hope the expedited funding helps provide a near-term boost for future success.”

The contracts went to 289 small businesses and 47 research institutions, including 74 businesses here in California, and three universities.

Other East Bay businesses also received contracts —

• HJ Science & Technology, San Leandro
• Superimaging Display, Inc., Fremont
• Spark Thermionics, Emeryville

Companies on the Peninsula and in the South Bay also received contracts.

The program is administered at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View.

Vector Atomic is at 1249 Quarry Lane, Suite 100, in Pleasanton.